Hi all,

Hand happened this past Friday evening. Hero has been playing very tight and has shown down two winners for smallish pots. There is a lot of loose calling from a few of the players and two big stacks at the table that are not afraid to be aggressive. Hero is in CO with $370

V1 (~$1,800) is a MABG, have been chatting with him and he had been there since Thursday evening so he is on a 24+ hour session. Fairly solid but he has called my previous 3b or raises sometimes with suited connectors/one gappers. He is deep so I expect his range is fairly open but in no way is he bad, I lean more towards LAG. V1 is in BB

V2 ($170) is a MABG and just seems like he is there to play black jack almost. Is calling very wide preflop and just likes to see flops and folds most times to any c-bet. V2 is on BTN

OTTH

One limper in MP and we look down at AJ on the CO, raise to $16. ($12-$18 is around the standard with usually 2 or so callers.) BTN calls, SB folds and BB thinks for around 15 seconds before 3b to $60. I elect to call, knowing BTN with either call or fold and not go over the top. (He was not a thinking player and I previously saw him call down and fold on the river to a 1/8th pot size bet) BTN calls and we are on to the flop.

Pot:$183
K75

V1 BB checks, at this point it would not take much for stacks to go in with V2 basically calling of folding with any piece. I have about a pot sized bet left and with V1 checking he either smashed the board (KK nice hand reload) or does not like the over card so JJ, QQ, maybe AQ or AJ?

Hero?
Any thoughts are super appreciated

A forum classic, but still valid: fold pre. AJ (even soooted), is doing very poorly against most non out of line 3 bet ranges. In order to call profitably preflop and making money with the call, you need to be up against a very wide 3 bettor wich is very rare at LLSNL games.

On the flop as played once we flop this much equity i am just shoving my money in and being happy about it.

+1 to the above. I love a semi-bluff shove here, but we shouldn't have called pre. If you think he's squeezing, I'd prefer a 4-bet, but I'd need really good reads before I tried it.

Interesting spot. Preflop seems standard with the Villains described. 4betting is out of the question and the 3betting range oop is certainly wide enough to make calling ok.

Getting it all in on the flop is fine, but the fold equity is low. I prefer checking to see what V2 does. If V2 bets and gets V1 to fold you have an easy call. If V2 bets and gets V1 to call or raise you are priced in as well. If V2 checks and the turn bricks out we may be forced to fold before the river.

Pre is close , I don't know what his 3b range looks like

AP shoving this flop with your stack size, can get hands like TT-QQ to fold, also AQ,AT,AJ

I think you are behind his 3b range ( but not sure ) so when you get bailed out with this flop you just gotta rip it in bc you are going to have some FE here for sure , even against super tight ranges

Agree with recondite7. Are we jamming for value or FE? I don't see material FE here.

BTN has ~100 behind and isn't folding any K with very good odds on call. V1 gets 5:3 odds on our jam if V2 folds and over 2:1 if V2 jams too.

Prefer to check. H is behind V1 range and flipping with BTN.

+1 to fold pre

Now I think you just bet V2's stack, and close your eyes and click call if V1 moves in

I'll backtrack a bit and say that PF may not be an easy call. I think against most live opponents it is a fold, but we had a decent description of the villain so I think it can be justified.

I just overlimp here. There's no way a raise is thinning the field (right?), we'll likely end up OOP, we're not short enough to feel comfortable raising to commit with TP (especially with this hand), this hand plays fine multiway in limped pots, etc.

I fold to the 3bet. We have a tight image and just got 3bet preflop, plus we have terrible IO (against hands like TT- when we outflop then) and terrible RIO (against hands like AK/etc. when we both flop TP).

I don't see a flop, but this is about as good as we're going to get, so I jam which maximizes our FE along with what is likely decent hand equity (and we're never drawing dead even against top set).

ETA: Gil sighting in this thread, welcome back Gil!

GcluelessNLnoobG

Bet/call the flop

And pre is clear raise or fold, with fold being standard

Would this be a call pre flop with say 200bb stack sizes?

I'm not sure I like calling a 3b pre with this hand at any depth. To me I'd rather 4b or fold. I guess if I knew I'd have position (which we don't in this case) I can see calling 200bb deep, if we are really confident in our post flop abilities.

Fold pre.

Flop I just bet enough to put shortie AI

+1 bet/call flop
shoving all turns if called by main V

Thanks for the replies everyone.

The main reason for the call was the reads/hands he had been showing down with I assumed if I connected with the board I could out play post flop. He seemed to not mind trying to squeeze with suited connectors, but in reality I guess if I went with my read a 4b is probably the best move. Just a screw up preflop that left me committed post flop

Fold to the 3bet pre. Bet $150 or shove flop. Shove all turns.

Folding pre is not "standard," overall, just for live poker. It is a live poker exploit where people 3-bet absurdly nitty ranges. Against someone who has some bluffs in his range flatting is best. I'd never 4-bet this hand IP. If villain's range is too strong for us to call I don't see him folding to ta 4-bet too often.

The fact that villain has 3-bet suited connectors in the past is not something very many people do and should have been included in the OP. Calling pre is fine. I'd bet about half pot on the flop and shove turn.

Wait, if he's been squeezing with suited connectors, 4bet him with this hand!