I'm playing $2/5 at my local casino the other day, and a man I've never seen before sits down a full stack ($500) and a full beer. First hand he's dealt, he opens in early position to $25. Two weak kind of loose-passive players, both with stacks of $350, call behind him. Now it's up to me in the hijack with AKs.

You guys like a flat or a raise here? I definitely think I have the best hand, and there's $80 worth of dead money out there, so I could raise it (to I guess $100?) and either take it down or get the beer man to decide he's not folding with AQ or AJs or KQs or something of that sort.

OR

I could flat and see a flop multiway in a low SPR pot (already $100 in the middle) and try to outflop and stack either the beer man or one or both of the shorter stacks.

What do you guys think?

Good chance we are ahead.

Possibly we are flipping with Beer Man for the dead money.

Punish the limpers and squeeze Beer Man.

At least $120, maybe $150.

I say I'm ready to gamble and push my stack in the middle.

150$ please don't flat.

125-150. If anyone comes in and says flat they need to be banned.

125 for me but I’m fine sizing up a little bit above that as well

Agree with others anything but a 3bet is criminally bad

I know this sounds like a semi-troll post, but I am absolutely serious. Stacks are shallow with FE against the field and the guy that decides to make a stand is likely to be making a mistake.

Shove if you suck sure

Late position, strong hand, and likely dead money. 100 all day.


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May or may not have sucked a dick in my life. What difference does it make to my line in this hand and why is a shove bad?

Don’t give the trolls oxygen mate

Shove has some benefits but these are outweighed by the value in bringing dominated AQ-AT and some other low equity hands into the mix. It’s also for balance given that we can profitably three bet some light stuff in future. Finally, are you shoving JJ+ here or does the jam actually cap your range?

raise to 135, call a shove

Raise is much better.

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Is there a royal flush jackpot running at your casino ?

what is your stack size ?

I'd definitely raise:
- AK plays better heads-up
- Want to fold players behind you so you have position
- Dead money in the pot to steal

I assume you have all Villains covered ($500 eff stacks) so the big question is: what are we doing if Villain 3bets?

Do we want to size a raise to price ourselves in to an all-in? Do we plan to fold to an all-in?

I would raise to $125
fold if jammed on by beer guy and call off vs short stacks

is this the right thinking?

You can't fold for $375 more vs an unknown that could have anything and probably have a shoving range of JJ+/AK plus sometimes AQ or sometimes a garbage hand that thinks late position is squeezing.

When Villain's range is as weak as AK, 99+, Hero is a 45-55 dog. With the presumed dead money, having the plan to 3-bet and call an AI is probably close to 0 EV when Hero is 4-bet.

However, the 3-bet itself is +EV, given all the monies earned those times everyone folds to the 3-bet.

Note: I was somewhat disappointed when I read the OP and realized the man did not have a bear with him.

Easy 3! to $125-$140 for me.

And as to why you don't shove? Pretty simple....you fold out all worse hands and only get called by a range that destroys you. Shoving is anti-value.

Sometimes you have to know how to out-troll the trolls.

No, I'm not shoving JJ here, but I am shoving AKs, AQs and possibley Ax suited wheels. More on why below.

First off we have an unknown drinking a beer that opens to $25 in EP. 2 loose-passives just call to us in the HJ and they have ~$350 stacks. We need to play vs. that stack amount, not Beer Man's $500 stack. So how do you feel about your hand if you raise to $125 and the Btn BB Villain and the 2 passives just call. The flop whiffs and you have ZERO fold equity with the pot at ~$625 bucks. Nice bet fold pre-flop if that is even a thing.

We block AA and KK. The 2 passives didn't raise. How are we getting called by better from them. If they had it they would have raised instead of flatting pre-flop. As to the Beer Man, if he has it he has it. What hand is he going to call a $125 raise that he won't stack off with. And even if he doesn't and the 2 passives fold, I'll gladly take a free $80 bucks with A high.

I would rather call with a pot of ~$100 and have some money that might scare someone (FE) if it checks to us in position when we whiff the flop, over making a $125 raise. Stacks just aren't deep enough for any play-ability post flop if we miss.

All-in>>>>flat>raise small

V should have some random spazz combos and smaller pairs on occasion. When a guy just sits down drinking a beer and raises the first hand you can't assume his get-it-in range vs. what looks like a squeeze is only JJ+/AK and even if you did it's still a call it off scenario.

not flatting, not shoving. c'mon people there is only one right answer to this one. sizing around $125.

yup. 3b/folding not acceptable here 100bb deep. do the math.

When you raise to $125 in the hijack, what are you hoping to happen with the other people in the hand behind you? Everyone behind you folds to Beer Man, he jams, the 2 passives fold and we get to call off.

Don't get it. Betting $125 into a pot that has $100 in it already with 2 players behind us with $350 effective just doesn't add up in my tiny little brain.

+1. Never flatting AK in position.