Early position playing 2/5 with 2k stack. I raise to 20, get one caller. Background on this caller, the guy has been slamming drinks all night with me going back and forth he has around 5k behind and he called 1200 preflop with QJo ten mins prior.

I have AK spades. Flop is K45 with one spade and I bet 50 and get a call. Turn is a J of spades. I've been trapping this guy all night and wanted to do same here so I check. He open bets 475 into 150. I figured that I prob have around 33% equity worst case with top top and the nut flush draw. Thought about calling since I was getting the equity but this guy could be doing this with anything. AJ was a possibility and I also knew that I could be getting completely smoked but I figured that the play looked way better than calling and I had to have some decent fold equity. But I shove all in for another 1600 and guy calls me with J4. River bricks off and I get stacked.

What are general thoughts on the play? Looking back at it right now I can see merit for call or shove but I think that shove was optimal given situation.

My thoughts? I like that you bet full pot on the flop, you could even go slightly higher like 60-70 but well done to exploit him. I don't mind your turn check although you could certainly bet again too and if you did it should again be a large bet around pot.

When you check the turn and face this big bet, I'd call to let him bluff with his random floats / gutshots / straight draws and my plan would be to pretty much call every river too, if you want to go exploitative. Pretty sure that balance-wise we should fold river unimproved though... You should have a few better hands here like KK,44,55,JJ,KJ to call blank rivers with if indeed you have been trapping turns a lot.

But please ask the other members for balance advice here because this 3x overbet really messes with ranges...

When ever you have top pair and say well if I
Shove I should have some fold Equity u are doing it wrong

+1 400bb deep this is the worst line of thinking imaginable.

I just threw up a little. Sorry dude.

I think a call on the turn would be much better in position. That way, we get to see if he gives up on the river before he sees that we have.

Otherwise, I just see us fighting for huge stacks in a small pot in the dark with only a pair. A call gives you terrible odds for catching your flush, and all we beating is a bluff. We know he's drunk, but a crazy overbet like that on the turn usually means a strong but not unbeatable hand. A guy who is drunk is not gonna be able to exploit you, so no need to worry about the meta game worry about this hand. He's laying you 1.3 to 1 to make this call that's pretty bad. You're not even getting correct implied odds to catch your flush. Is it really worth it to make this call? Me personally I say enjoy and fold.

All, thanks for responses.

I realize this that was obviously not optimal play against a regular opponent but after seeing this guy go all-in with QJo I knew that there was chance that AK was good because it was under repped on my end. I was checking to trap and so when he made the overbet it was a difficult spot. Obviously would've have folded against literally anyone else but AK could've def been good there and drawing with 36% equity. At same time, felt that a flat would turn my hand face up and really couldn't fold against this player. Clearly not a great play at 2/5 game though and lesson learned.

I was playing for this guy's stack and although the math didn't make sense for the implied odds, I knew that if I was able to hang on and double through him that he would definitely open up and very good chance I would be taking his entire stack so this also factored into decision. This was very rare opportunity and I was willing to take a chance.

Is this wrong line of thinking?

Follow up question is, if this was a 10/20 game (which is basically how the table was playing with average pot around 5-600), would that make the play more acceptable?

Where are you getting 36% equity from? 9 outs to hit a flush ... 18% equity roughly. Even if you add in the A or K outs, you're not getting there.

I've played a significant amount of 2/5 and 10/20 and they don't really ever play the same. Table dynamics are always different in these stakes even if your table seems loose gambly and the pots are big it really doesn't relate to bigger games. This line of thinking will get you hurt even by the bad players in the bigger games.

I think you guys are giving the drunk guy way too much credit. His play with QJo shows that he is there to gamble. I vote to become very vocal about the strange 3x bet and min-raise his ass while saying "I never do this. I can't believe I am making this play right now. This is so stupid, but it feels right. I'm gonna make you think". Drunk guy won't be able to resist the leveling urge to push with whatever garbage he may be holding.

Another caveat to this is the guy might go polar opposite and do something terrible like fold JJ putting you on KK. Drunk people can do the weirdest things sometimes. Basically a minraise leaves room for a lot of unexpected mistakes. This sounds contradictory, but it actually isn't. You are making a play that leaves room for a huge blunder.