Live $110 MTT. Full table. Just started maybe 30 minutes ago. Starting stacks: 10,000.
Hero: has won several small pots. Up to 12,000-ish. One opponent recognizes me for having won this same tourney two weeks earlier, and talks to me openly about it.
Villain: male, white, 70s. Pleasant. Not a big-time talker, but seems to like to talk. Won a big pot when he UTG limp-called a 4x raise vs a possible TAG. On a board of 8 5 2 rag, he flop c/c'd, turn c/r'd with K9. So, I'll say, straightforward with mixed deception. He's up to at least 20,000.

50/100. All folds to me, I raise to 200 from Btn with AK. SB folds. V (BB) calls.
Flop: A 8 4
V checks. I bet 400. V calls.
Turn: 2
V checks. I bet 800. V calls.
River: 8
V checks. I bet 1125. V says "You're climbing up the ladder! Alright [facing the dealer] says let's raise it up." Raises to 3000.

He's obviously representing 8-X here.
1) Hero decision? Are you easy folding? Cry folding? Cry calling? Easy calling?
2) This guys is pleasant and willing to talk.....what might you say to him/ask him to try and elicit the strength of his hand?

dont think he has only 8x as for value / could be playing A8/44 same way.

Do you think he's good enough to know your range is pretty much capped to Ax and his willing to turn A9-AJ/any PP to bluff here ? That's pretty much a decesion breaker imo - vs 70 year old dude im prob. nit folding and don't tell anybody since your in a rough shape vs his valuerange.

Easy fold w/ speech and villain is 70. He's not turning bluffcatchers into c/r bluffs.

I folded without too much hesitation. Then he showed AK. An odd way to have played this, indeed.

Entertain me for just a moment. So we know this Villain likes to talk. Hypothetically - what if we also like to talk? What would you say to this guy to elicit information if he has 8-x or something weaker? The reason I ask is, I currently base my decisions on opponent image + stack + action/betting patterns (standard) but not as much on verbal tells. Against a thinking, good opponent, I would not rely on verbal tells because they would be less useful. But against this guy, who we know likes to talk, and is really a typical 70s liveament player, is talking to him to elicit information worthwhile time?

Why are capped at Ax?

I like folding river aswell vs described villain, although I like bigger pre this deep, at least 250, prolly just making the full 3x.

nice hand oldtimer

more pre
no need for psb otf
I snap for that price.

It certainly is worthwhile. This is why live you can get away with ultra exploitable plays simply based on physical/verbal info.

That said I'm no expert on this stuff but typically when people start talking they aren't bluffing, and I just don't expect random old guys to raise Ax for thin value here. Pretty impressed by his line.

more pre

bet /fold 2.2k otr

Trivial fold

i fold thinking AK is the bottom of his range and i guess once in a blue moon villain can have gutter but generally on the river he is AK+. before i fold any bluff catcher tho i would say something like "why do nicer gentlemen always bluff me" or something like that. honestly how he says his response has more weight than what he says imo

I'm really confused by this hand and the advice to fold. There is 3,975 in the pot and we're going to fold TPTK for another 1,875 with 9,400 behind us in level 1 of a liveament?

You need to assign him a pretty narrow range to miss this opportunity and give up the hand. I think you can find a ton of Ax hands in his range.

This is a pretty easy call IMHO. I think folding this is pretty nitty.

Am I crazy?

not crazy, hell maybe right. i like a fold vs an old man in a live tourny since like i said i cant imagine him playing all streets this way w AQ or weaker and i see so few possible bluffs that folding seems right to me

300 pre, then bet pretty big post once he calls and get value from a villain who will defend any ace in the BB.

b/f river is fine.

If he has A9s c/r > c/c?

We bet three streets and got check raised by a station. Come on, calling would be bad.

You're may very well be right that you're behind, but for that price that early...folding would be worse.

What worse hands could he raise for value? There are like no draws he could have.

the odds are overated
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrbMx0BPZoQ

Pretty sick, think I'd have to call there because she could be value betting worse. In OP's thread I don't see how that's possible. Dumb bluffs tend to be of the leading variety on the river.

no. no it didnt

You're right about that, but plenty of Ax hands make this play, as do pocket pairs....especially in the early rounds of a liveament.

I think with the stack sizes, the stage of the tournament, etc., etc. you just can't let this go.

Like I said, you're ahead less often than you're behind, but you're getting too good a price to fold.