Raiser: Seemingly ABC standard player, middle-aged woman.

Villain (covers): Fairly unknown player. Young guy, seems a bit loser than average.

Rock ($150): Very tight older man.

Hero ($260) : Honestly not sure on my image. Probably fairly tight but not as much as villain 3.

Raiser makes it 12, Villain calls, hero looks down in cutoff to AKs and makes it 35. Thoughts on this? In this game there was literally almost no 3betting, I am turning my hand into AK//QQ+ likely. Against a single raiser I likely just flat here, but with a raise+call I feel it's "safer" to just try to take it down.

Rock cold-calls my 3bet on the button which scares me a lot... I pretty much put him on AK/KK+, I really don't know if he'd even stay in with QQ.

Raiser folds, Villain calls.

Flop comes 44A rainbow. (Pot $115)

At this point I'm not too concerned about Villain. And while I realize I have blockers to AA and he probably has AK I am thinking about Rock.

Villain checks, I check, Rock shoves for 115. Villain calls... which confuses me greatly. At this point I am thinking "do we really all have AK?" and "well, Villain can't have a 4.... right?" I have $225 left in my stack, seems like a shove or a fold.

Thoughts?

Shove and nh imo.

3! pre could maybe be a bit bigger ($40). Checking this dry flop is fine. Get it in now.

Don't see how villain can really have a 4, except quads, unless he's awful. Without that read I get it in expecting everyone to have an ace.

Slightly larger PF raise ... The raiser or V only have to call $21 into $40 which is a very good price and you indicated you wanted to take it down right here? This is a 'call me' raise and not a 'go away raise'. And the cold-flat by B gives them both even better odds to flat your raise.

And why did you not c-bet this Flop? You arent acting like you want to 'take it down' any more. Mixed signals. Checking this Flop means you are going to c/r 100% of the time with these stack sizes if your goal is to take it down.

Dont see too many 'Rock' type players flatting here with AA so it must be Ax and very doubtfull that its A4 so our focus really should be on V here.

What can V have to beat us? A4/44/45s ... Does he call PF with these hands? Yes, especially if it was A4s/44. Does he call with all other Ax, yes and many more hands as well so we are ahead of his PF range big time IMO. The big question would be ... Does HE know the Rock is a rock?

You have shown weakness by not c-betting so the fact that V has flatted B really is no surprise as he has no reason to try and raise you out of the pot. If you had c-bet here and then he flats that might give us some more information but I dont know that it's enough information to fold this out as played. If he knows rock is a rock, then I probably put V on a 4x hand and can fold some of the time.

With your stack size I think I shove here and take the 4x cooler in stride or hope to suck out. If Rock really flatted AA PF then god bless him to for letting AA go to flop multi-way. Him flatting 44 here is a better play and you get your money back from V in the side pot. If V played 4x then shame on you for not c-betting the Flop so he could give you more information to work with after Rock shoved.

1) More PF if you want to take it down ... one caller can drag in many more PF
2) C-bet to get info (value, you have the best hand in most cases too) from opponents unless you are committed to shoving, then c/r is fine with these stack sizes.

Not that surprising to see 4x from V or 44 from Rock .. any other holdings mean you are in a game that you want to be in. Loose calls and undervaluing holdings PF are a good spot for you to be in ... other than trying to get position on the Rock somehow. You don't really care where the loose guy is unless he is a maniac, then position on him is more important since he will be in more hands. GL

I'm also 3betting preflop. The $12 is on the small side, there's a caller, we're in position, we're only playing 87bbs deep. I'd 3bet closer to $50 though.

With TPTK and an SPR of ~2, we are absolutely committed on this flop. So the only question is the best way to get it in. The board is completely drawless, and we'll still easily be able to get the money in even if the flop checks thru. And checking the flop might enable us to eek a bet out of an underpair on later streets or even induce a bluff. So I like the flop check.

As played, I think whatever we do will be taken as strong. But I guess a shove is stronger than a call. Although I really don't see how Villain can fold after putting in more than 1/2 his stack. Honestly, I don't think it matters much, so long as we don't fold.

GcluelessNLnoobG

I might make the preflop 3b to some obnoxiously large size like $70 and just jam all flops. It maximizes your FE now and almost always sets you up with at worst a HU flop that you can bluff at again. With deeper stacks I'd like a more reasonable 3b to like $45, but with an awkward in-between stack like this I'd rather just set up an SPR of close to 1 rather than committing 20% of our stack pre (like if you raised to $50) and then folding a lot when we miss.

As played, the initial flop check is good. . When the action comes back around to you the second time, I'd flat and try to get it in later in the hand just to minimize any chance of him folding a weaker A. Check behind the turn if he checks to you, and then jam river if he checks again. Obviously never fold.

Fold.

Somebody's got it.

Next time donk the flop, don't check.