V1 is a tight player, positionally unaware, open raises a narrow range. Limps a lot. Level 1 thinker who will overvalue hands.

Main Villain V2 is a middle aged Filipino male. Talks of playing bigger games in Vegas (20/40 NL). Seems aware of poker concepts such as combos/blockers, is positionally aware and a decent hand reader.

V3 is a whale on a heater. He's deep and willing to stack off with one pair. Aggro but doesn't bluff much. Incredibly sticky.


Stacks: V1 500, V2 and Hero 1000, V3 1500

UTG V1 opens to 25, MP1 calls, CO V2 calls, BTN V3 calls, Hero calls in SB with AQ.

I don't think there is much of an option here except to call. I think KQs/AQs/JJ/maybe TT is at the bottom of V1s range.

Flop: 3TQ (pot=125)

Hero/V1/MP check, V2 bets 30, V3/Hero calls, V1 and MP fold.

Turn: J (pot=215)

Action checks through.

River: 2 (pot=215)

Hero?

Normally I would say check this river against 2 opponents because the chance somebody shows up with 2 pair is high. Against these two specific opponents I like $125. When V2 doesn't bet the turn it's highly unlikely he has a better hand and V3 likely has a lot of pair+draw that will pay you off.

I think I messed up the sizing on the river: I bet 150, hoping to get a hero call from V1 with KQ or V2 with a Jack. I am sure that 100-125 would have been better. When V1 went into the tank, I was nearly certain that he had KQ and was wishing in my head for a call. He eventually called and flipped over TT for flopped set. I couldn't believe he checked the turn. He said he was concerned that a hand like K9x may have gotten there and he wanted to pot control. Through this hand and later actions I learned that this guy is a huge nit who is fearful of multiway pots and looks to play his strong but not nutted hands as checks/calls.

Don't like pre at all, 3b/fold esp OOP more likely 3b with so many callers. Yes the guy is tight, but he is forced to make a decision for his stack, and you avoid these MW guessing games

Given the reads, I would never fold.

And, also given the reads, to me a 3b looks like a recipe for playing an inflated pot multiway OOP.

With such a low SPR, you are either playing fit or chk-fold on the flop not really knowing where you are, or turning the hand into a bluff for the size of your stack for no real reason.

I like the way OP played.

I definitely was conflicted about preflop.

I've seen V1 stack off with JJ before and his range is pretty tight when he opens to this sizing, so I don't have much fold equity. I don't really want to get it in with AQ against a range of JJ+ and AK. So I think fold is better than 3b.

But I'm 350 blinds deep against the whale and I'm pretty comfortable with my postflop game. I think there are definitely situations where I can double up on certain Ace high boards when the whale hits top pair worse kicker. I a tually stacked him for 450 earlier in the session with my KQ against his KJ on a KT38 runnout. It seemed like too good of an opportunity to pass up with AQ essentially closing the action in the SB.

Check

I find preflop tricky. I think we likely have poor IO / RIO against the tight opener. We likely have similar type issues deep and OOP to the good V2. But we have good IO against the poor whale albeit OOP. We're really just calling here and hoping everyone goes away postflop where we can make and play a hand against the whale. I don't hate that idea and it's relatively cheap considering stacks, but I think we'll have to be prepared to exit ASAP postflop as soon as someone other than the whale gets involved or else the call might be meh.

I'm ok with the flop check/call. We don't want to go crazy with the deep good player in position on us, and the whale is still in the hand, and the price is reasonable, so let's call and see what happens.

I'm fine with the checking the turn.

How capable is V2 of blowing us off a bet here and putting us to a tough test? The more he's capable of that, the more I risk losing value and just checking to get to showdown for a reasonable price on the river in a decent sized pot. The less chance he gets out-of-line on the river (especially with the whale behind him) the more I risk being put in a tricky situation and value bet the river hoping to get paid off by the whale (like $100 or so).

GcluelessNLnoobG