Hi all,

2/5. V is good reg with range-awareness and relatively active three-bettor. $650 eff. We are doing a round of straddles.

Folds to hero in BB with Ah6h and opens to $35, V 3! in straddle to $100. Hero 4! $250. V flats.

Flop ($500): TT6r. X/V $110, call.

Turn ($720): 4. X/x.

River: 5. No flush. X/x.

Thanks,
DT

I don’t think you should have a non-shove 4-bet sizing pre at this stack size. I think either is fine, but mostly calling and definitely not folding. I think this is how I’d play post.

Grunch.

I would just fold to the 3 bet. I don't expect even a solid live reg to be 3 betting anywhere near often enough. AP, I would c bet flop $125.

Open from BB is fine. It's more bluff then value but your in a good place to bluff as long as your not trying to steal too many hands.

Fold to the 3 bet unless you know villain will 3 bet and then fold. Even if you are sure it will work sometimes still fold most of the time. The 4 bet sizing is very situational. Has villain folded to other 4 bets? Has villain seen you make any other 4 bets and what size was involved? Is villain aware enough to think about your 4 bet size vs effective stack sizes? In standard situations a 4 bet that small is a mistake. With a weak bluffy hand you don't want to be inviting him along, you want to apply max pressure without it looking like a bluff.

Flop bet is a mistake unless you know villain is way too fit/fold or you have some meta-game sizing war going on. It's too small to apply any pressure at all at that point. Most villains would feel obligated to call because it's no bigger then their preflop 3 bet. Against a typical villain either check or shove. If villain is more aware then a half stack bet can work, it's big enough to have some impact while implying your just trying to get him pot committed.

Turn and river are fine. Your only bet is a shove and you probably don't have much FE against a villain that has gotten that far in the hand.

Wow so HU facing a 3! from a positionally aware V who 3! more than most, this is a fold? I guess I need to stop getting out of line then.

BvB A6 suited is a bluff?

With straddles I would just flat with A6s, not looking to create non-multiway big pots OOP with this hand in a straddled pot. I do think opening it is fine, but I think flatting is better here. As played, would just fold to the 3!. Most if not all of the hands that dominate/crush you are probably in Vs 3! range from the straddle IMO.

As played, Vs hand looks like scared JJ or something like KQs/AK/AQ/AJ, you do block his Ax combos.

Spew. I'd treat A6s as two napkins pf. If the table is playing fit/fold/nitty and my image is good, worth a raise. Once 3bet, in the muck they go.

I don’t know that I would’ve made the initial raise to $35. I think not. A6s is one of the worst suited aces, especially out of position. The wheel aces are better. With A6s you can only make a flush and it may be obvious when you make it.
The 4 bet is just straight up spew.

I'd also fold to the 3B pre.

Flop - once he calls the 4B pre, I'd X OOP with most of my 4B range. Given how the flop texture interacts w/4B ranges, the smaller sizing doesn't seem to serve much purpose.

A-rag is always a bluff preflop. There are just too many marginal flops. Unless you get a particularly favorable flop the best situation is both of you whiffed entirely and you take it down with a c-bet.

If you whiff entirely or the flop has a 6 you may or may not have the best hand. You don't beat any value hands but beat most of villain's hands if he whiffed also.

If you catch an ace high flop and villain doesn't fold to your flop bet it's even worse. Now your just guessing. Does villain have a better AX or does he have a worse hand he didn't fold? Your hand is too good to just give up but doesn't beat any actually good hands.

OK, but this is heads up basically blind on blind. I didn't raise from EP or anything crazy like that. Doesn't that change things? Also, I didn't bet otf, I check-called.

And no one has mentioned meta implications for a 4-bet bluff range since I will be playing with this V again. (I guess you'd say choose A5s instead?)

Since he called your 4bet, I don't think you need worry about your image being too tight to him.

Yes, it is blind-vs-blind, but you'll be out of position against the straddle, which (for a nit like myself) makes this a fold pre rather than a marginal raise. I'd be more likely to raise from the BB if we were up against the SB rather than the straddle since we'll have position.

JFC pre is not a marginal open, and A6s isn't a "bluff." If you don't think you can raise pre you need to get up because I'm not sure you can even be profitable with a decent aggro villain on your left. Are you only going to VPIP wider than 5% only when you're BU or something?

Limping this is also fine.

The line between value/bluff is heavily blurred pre-flop. Most hands including this one have higher EV when villain folds than when he continues. Yet we very easily have >50% equity against villain's calling range with this hand.

FWIW, Zenith's 100BB solved ranges have this as a mixed 4-bet/mostly call at 100BB, as does Pokersnowie. You can decide how you think we should play it differently in these game conditions, but I wanted to point out that this is absolutely not spew vs. an aggro positionally aware reg.

Yeah, there's some really goofy stuff in this thread...

I just wouldn't be 4 betting, because I don't think people actually realize how wide villain is supposed to be 3 betting here. 3 betting very wide for a live player is rarely anywhere near equilibrium.

Opening and limping are both options pre. Being that were 60bb eff I'd probably lean limp.

4betting seems a bit spewy. From the v description I can kind of see why you chose to 4b (v likely thinks were wide and attacking his straddle, so he's 3b and were gonna 4b to take it down pre). But, I think there are better spots to take this line with.

Id like stacks to be a bit more deeper, and have A2-A5s instead of A6s.

At those shallow stack sizes, I would fold to the 3bet. If he jams, are you calling? Folding a third of your stack would be horrible there, and so would calling off a jam with ace rag. Yes it's def a 4bet bluff. If you were reraising for value you would be beating him to the pot if he 5bet.

No I meant the initial raise was for value. Yes the 4! was a bluff.

Bunch o’ massive nits ITT.

AP I would rip river and live with the consequences.
You have one of the nut hands to do it with when turn goes x/x and you fold out a lot of hands V will have that beat you.

What hands are we folding out when we rip 290 into 720 after he flatted a $250 4bet pre
we beat AK which we block but he could also be trying to get to SD with JJ or 99 hoping hero's the one who has AK, esp since he checked the flop. I would rather try to get to SD as well since we beat some other random hands like AQs or KQs who tried to take a small stab at it otf. However I wouldn't be in this spot though since I woulda folded to the 4bet (that's not being a nit that's being a smart player lmfao) but since Hero made it this far in the hand and seems to be throwing money around, sure just jam it's only a 40% PSB it might fold out an unlikely pair of 7's or 8's

Ya, you’re right actually. My math for stacks left was wrong. I thought we had $390 left.
I also would fold to 3!, but if I was 4!ing I would of cbet 20% OTF and ripped turn.
I meant nits ITT to the people who are saying that A6hh is a bad hand HU.
Was mostly agreeing with Browni.
I agree $290 won’t get any folds, but $390 might of.
I think V has 99/JJ/AK/AQ all day here.

It’s the 2002 mindset of NLHE in the thread that I’m calling nittery on.
Opening this HU OOP seems far superior to limp calling the way I construct my HU OOP ranges. If getting OOL with a 4! I am happily stacking off like top of range on this flop.
I don’t love the x/c OTF much honestly.

To be ahead of his 3bet, his range has to be at least 35%. If it is, then it is more profitable to 4bet since he's going to fold enough to make a strategy of x/f on the flop profitable. Wasn't there, but most 2/5 players aren't 3 betting at that frequency.

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