Hi all brand new game haven’t played with anyone before

1/3 game effective stack is 220

H: I raise UTG to 12 with AJ of hearts

V1 calls in the cutoff

V 2 calls on the button

(40) flop is A Q 2 with two hearts

We c bet 20 and cutoff folds button raises to 40. We ship all in. Is this ever the correct play here?

Although AJ suited is a good hand to open with, your sizing from early position was somewhat large. You should have raised to 7 unless the table standard is 12. Your C-bet is good, you should just call the raise if you want to continue, the all in in this spot is not good. Although you have top pair with the flush draw, you really just have a flush draw and cannot count the extra 3 jacks as real outs here unless villain has exactly AK. Villain likely has AK or AQ in this spot maybe A2 suited and is trying to build a pot and protect his hand.

RFI to $7 in a 1/3 game? I think not.

Yeah even at 1/2 a $7 pfr is almost meaningless, just a pot builder it won't knock out anything but pure trash that might have limped late.

You're either way ahead or somewhat behind, but your shove is almost never getting called by worse (readless) and probably never folding out better... Maybe a nitty AK? I don't like the shove.

The minraise could be a worse flush draw trying to buy a free river, in which case you don't want to scare him off when he'll likely stack off if the flush does come in or maybe even spew-bluff a blank turn if thinks you are weak. If it's a value raise with 2p+ then he's not folding.

I'd just call and probably check-calling non-flush turns, check-raising flush turns. If a blank turn checks through I'd check-call blank rivers hoping to bluff-catch and check-raise flush rivers. If a flush turn checks through I guess gotta value-bet river.

If he still bets a blank turn obv still calling unless he jams, probably check-folding if still a blank river and he 3-barrels.

$12 is fine (if anything it's too small).

I don't mind the shove, but I'd sometimes just make it $100 and call a shove -- prepared to shove all turns. I wouldn't always open AJs UTG.

I am fine with gii on flop for less than 100bb with top pair and nut flush draw.

Yes, sorry I thought this was a 1-2 table and not a 1-3, my mistake. At 1-2 I still like the $7 open, as to not give sizing tells.

Even $12 isn't giving sizing tells at most mouth-breather tables. I've lost count of the number of times that even an early-position raise to $20 simply means almost $150 in the pot going to the flop.

In this instance, OP describes a new table and is in early position...with a hand that he isn't real thrilled to be playing multi-way. With the raise to $12, I am really surprised it was only three way to the flop...

At small bet sizes (sub $10) the sizing breaks down, because people look at the absolute value of money, not how it relates to the current pot or hand. So the general rule that some veteran here posted works better ($12 + 3$/limper)

It really depends on the table also. I've had people call my UTG raise to $20 with J9o and worse trash. Some tables will respect a $12 open more than an $18 open.

Any information about the villains? Age, Sex, Stack size, table demeanor, etc? This kind of information is helpful in how to decide to respond to the min-raise.

With little to no information about the villains to go on, I'd expect the min-raise to be a 2 pair+ hand, maybe occasionally KThh or 34hh (flush draw+ gut shot straight draw) depending on the villain. More heavily though on the 2 pair + hand.

By Going all in, you're getting snapped by every hand that is currently beating you, and folding out every hand that you're dominating. The only hand that might call a shove that your beating is a combo FD+SD, and even that is not a guaranteed call to your bet.

I like just calling and evaluating the turn. If you miss, you can fold to a bet. If your opponent is on the combo FD+SD, he is essentially min-raising the flop with the hopes of stealing the betting action and checking behind you to see the river for $20 extra, instead of the $45-55 you would have continued with on the turn. This is not a terrible scenario for you, because if you opponent hits his flush on either street you're almost guaranteed to stack him.

Seriously, for just over ~75bb, you guys are calling and evaluating turn with top pair and nut flush draw? I would fold now before I called to fold on a blank turn, especially when there is a good chance you won't get paid if a heart comes.

I figured since we were both under 100bb it was fine.

Also, I thought jamming over a min raise might be good for my image. AKA don’t raise me

Folding the nut flush draw on an unpaired board instead of calling $20 into $120 pot is criminal and could possibly land you in jail for the night.

Calling does put you at a disadvantage if a heart comes (V will likely check behind and leading is strong). That plus villain only having $100 behind would make me want to shove too but I have to imagine its very close between calling and shoving.

I'd 3b on the flop, not AI but obviously calling an AI if I'm 4b. Pair of A's w/ nut flush draw = ahead of any range = shoveling chips and feeling good. Sometimes you lose but never feel bad about it.

clear call.
to the shove camp:
you think he´s ever gonna fold AK or AQ?
you think he´s calling it off with AT or a worse flush draw?

I would call the min-raise and hope for hearts. You're probably up against AK or AQ.

I don't want him to fold, but I do want to see both cards coming. I honestly don't care what his cards are right now. If he folds (and we do have some FE), I win with a pair of As. If he calls, I get to see both cards with a lot of outs if I'm behind (could easily be ahead already). Do you really think we win any more money if we flat and a heart comes on the turn? Do you really want to call the raise and fold on a non-heart turn? It's ~75bb with top pair and the nut flush draw -- raise and be prepared to gii!

I wouldnt fold any turn.

I think we are pretty far ahead of his minraising range, but not ahead of his gii range. why not give the guy a chance to have something worse than AJ? If we aren´t folding anyway, might just c/c allin eventually.

re bolded part: that is somewhat true, but I think it´s minor compared to creating a situation where we mostly fold out everything we beat and gii with decent equity but as a dog by shoving.

Add another question: Will we get paid if the flush comes in? Being OOP, the answer is likely no, so that's a reason to jam now. We have great equity against his GII range.

that´s the point.
Do we reallly have great equity against a normal GII-range? what is his GII range in your opinion, may I ask?

AK/AQ/A2, maybe a few combos of AJ/AT, QQ/22, basically all K-high heart draws, other SC hearts.

The problem with the shove is that we really narrow the range of hands that will call to basically anything that beats us. Especially on this board. Just call and take ur draw to the nuts if he checks back the turn I’d weight him towards weaker aces and flush draws. If he bets turn he most likely has us beat so it just come down to pot odds

I would have open limped. Hand plays find multiway in limped pots plus we'd much rather play against dominated Aces that could easily fold to a raise (whereas a raise might limit the Aces to dominating ones). But my table is also very loose and mostly this will just build a lol bloated pot OOP where we won't necessarily feel comfortable committing with TP (and yet will likely be put in that spot). Your table plays differently than mine if a lol $12 raise somehow narrows the field to 3ways.

SPR is 5 on the flop and we've got TPokK + nut flush draw. We're probably committed. But at the same time, we don't really fear draws (if we're ahead our opponents are drawing incredibly slim). I'm kinda cool with whatever on the flop, either checking or betting. Probably betting against loose calling stations and checking against aggro players.

Even though we're committed, I think the best play at this point is to just call which leaves open bluffs to continue (especially if opponent is aggro). We're never getting a better hand to fold with the shove, plus we don't want a worse Ace (who is drawing to a mere 3 outs and we'll have a redraw even if he hits) to fold.

GcluelessNLnoobG

I think it's a shove. Villain is almost never gonna have AQ,QQ, or AA here because they'd all 3 bet preflop. So his value hands that we are currently behind are A2 and 22, and against those hands we still have 46% equity. If he is ever semibluffing with a hand like JThh, we have over 50% equity, which makes shoving ok in the sense that we are +EV. To prove that this is the optimal line, it has to have the highest EV of any line. Villains value hands are unlikely to pay us off if we improve on the turn, which means we might as well take the aggressive line where we can balance our range with sets, AQ, and flush draws.

ok.
I personally find it way too optimistic to assume AJ, AT or flushdraws would just call it off here readless, but let´s add one combo of AT, one of AJ and one of QQ. Let´s also add one Kh combo draw, one randomn Kh flush draw and let´s say for the sake of argument he´ll even call it off with a 4 high flush draw (which I really don´t think we should expect readless).

ProPokerTools Hold'em Simulation

28,710 trials (Exhaustive)

board: AQ2

Hand	Pot equity	Wins	Ties
AQ, AK, A2, AcJc, AcTc, QcQs, 22, KhTh, Kh9h, 3h4h	50.36%	13,848	1,221
AhJh	49.64%	13,641	1,221

It´s not bad. But I don´t think you can call that "great equity".

ProPokerTools Hold'em Simulation

24,750 trials (Exhaustive)

board: AQ2

Hand	Pot equity	Wins	Ties
AQ, AK, A2, QcQs, 22, KhTh	56.03%	13,637	462
AhJh	43.97%	10,651	462

I think that would be a more realistic range.

Shoving would only turn a very profitable situation into a slightly losing one. IMO.
it´s obviously easier to play though.

Even 3betting flop to say 80 or 85, calling it off if shoved on and shoving any turn if called is far superior to outright shoving imo. At least we give him a chance to continue with weaker aces or dominated flushdraws.

If we assume we're both GII, then we only need 39.4% equity to do so profitably (shove is an additional 188 and pot will be 476 after V calls). So even having just 44% in your second ranging is "great equity" in this scenario.

Edit: in LLSNL, I see wayy more K-high flush draws here from V than you're including, plus definitely some other naked FD like 87hh, T9hh. So I think in practice we end up with way more than the 49.64% you list in scenario 1. We can agree to disagree which is fine, but even in your scenario 2, shove is profitable.