Hero: 30s white male. Been playing good and running better. Villain hasn’t been at the table long but has seen me raise preflop and either take it down there or on the flop. Image should at the very least be competent, moreso with a $900 stack that dwarfs the rest of the table.

Villain: 30s East Indian male. Gives off a gambly, there for fun and the excitement vibe, not earbuds and the TAG grind. Sat down around an hour ago and has been raising his share of hands, which was a welcome sight as the table has been in a tight and nitty place. Straddles every time he’s UTG, only person to do so. He’s cbet some flops I suspect he stole and even saw what I believe was a double barrel. Action kinda player. Stack $280

On to the hand!

Villain straddles for 6 UTG, folds all the way to Hero in SB who raises to 19 with QQ, folds to villain who gives it some thought before raising to 56. Hero..?

First time villain has 3bet. Also important to note this casino has an odd rule that the 4th bet is the cap, so if I did raise to any amount villain would only have the options of calling or folding.

Shove

Effect stacks halfed in a straddled pot. He's not even got 100bb to start before the straddle. OOP so not flatting and I'm certainly not folding.

I'd just shove it in here. Ive seen a lot of these types assume any Ax is the nuts on the straddle especually against a raise from the blinds. Any 4 bet will commit you on the flop anyway.

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ship it...

Arrrrrrrr-in!

Sorry you ran into AA.

Anyone like a flat pre, and give him a chance to fire again otf, and then get it in? Not sure what we’re getting value from here with a shove, I have to assume he folds everything except AK, JJ+

Yup, at least some portion of the time. We can check shove alot of flops when we flop an overpair (get AK to C bet with air or 1010-JJ to feel like they have the nuts when they flop an overpair), or we can slowplay if we mash the flop with a set.

I probably put too much into these spots but ... and you've already indicated it's been barely an hour.

1) How many hands have you played 'together'? Do you really want to tangle with the other Alpha-Dawg when there are 'so many' other players to pick on?
2) How are you mentally going to handle a beat? When are you leaving?

3) With him having position most every hand, has that played a role in any previous hands?
4) He only flatted when his straddle was raised before? Did he ever raise his straddle when it limped around?

5) A/K Flops are 30% ... Have you seen him float an under-pair as of yet? They could be action killers for both of you.
6) Has he GII in any other hand as of yet? Was he a favorite or drawing?

7) Has he seen you fold to a 3-bet/pressure as of yet?

This spot can go either way for me depending on where I'm at in my session. I know that's not supposed to be the case, but too bad! I also tend to avoid these Alpha-Alpha spots PF, somewhat similar to early tournament play, when I think I'm having my way with the rest of the table. And although it's only been a short time, I think it's been 'too long' for a 'gambly' player to have not 3-bet at least once before.

I think you are facing JJ-AA (maybe 88-TT) or some other Ax/KQ holdings. Flip a coin I guess. If you don't mind (or just want to) play a hand OOP with this guy, especially if you plan to stick around, then I don't have an issue with flatting. If you can mentally handle the beat and/or just want to add the chips to your stack then shove.

I've made the mistake of raising to $200 here and letting them fold out the Flop with chips still behind ... I don't do that so much any more. I did it mainly because I wanted them to have to show their cards first AND I was committed to the pot anyway. Typically you get to see the cards anyway, so get the full value.

To use a sterotype thought .. He's not stuck yet, so this shoudl be pretty strong IME. I see a very math based player who will become emotional and more gambly if he does get stuck later. GL

With a $280 effective stack I think we have lots of options on our first preflop action. We could just raise to $30ish (not too out-of-line with a straddle on I'm assuming) to setup an easy stack off SPR postflop. We could also lol complete, where an aggro guy will often raise, where we can then limp/raise to setup the easy stack off SPR. Or, if we think a raise when folded to in the SB will look FOS and played back at, we could do what we did here, raise more smallish-normalish and hope to get 3bet.

As played, against an aggro player in a FOS looking situation, I'm cool with playing for these stacks. QQ is going to see enough gross flops, so I'm kinda cool with shoving now, especially with fairly significant dead money already in the pot (especially if pots aren't raked on hands ending preflop which is definitely a consideration in high rake games). Or we could go a more normalish like $150 and then shove the remaining $130 into $300 (but we do risk a lot gross flops where we might freeze up).

GcluelessNLnoobG

Are people suggesting a jam over the top because it makes the hand easier as we are OOP, or for value? Jamming would certainly be easier, but I'm not confident on the value part.

Bolded were my thoughts at the time. I'm sure you could construct a fairly looser range than most for the 3bet from this villain as he has been a very aggro guy. 88+ KQs+ AJs+ among others. However, how many of that is calling a jam? 19, 56, and then 280 AI? Super strong line from myself.

I would need history of villain capable of calling off their entire stack beyond the usual AK QQ+ that defines live low stakes play to think going AI would be good. Big difference between him jamming with say AQ, JJ and expecting some FE as opposed to calling it off. In this particular instant I felt it better to keep his range wider as opposed to potentially letting him off the hook.

Villain straddles for 6 UTG, folds all the way to Hero in SB who raises to 19 with QQ, folds to villain who gives it some thought before raising to 56. Hero flats.

Flop: 962 (Pot~110)

Hero..?

Obviously some people will be disappointed I didn't jam. Now that we haven't though, whats the thought on donking vs checking?

Grunch:

I raise way more pre. This isn't the kind of V that gives up his straddle easily, especially not to some bully in the SB who's "just trying to steal the blinds". Make it 25-30, more if you think his calling range is really inelastic.

Once he reraises, this is a pretty easy flat. We have his range beat and if we come over the top, we likely only get called by better (or maybe AK). If the flop seems safe, I think you have to go with it for an SPR of 2.

EDIT for flop:

Your SPR is now under 3 on a safe board, so it's time to gii. If you think he's betting, c/r. If you think he checks behind, lead out for a decent bet and call any raise. You're only losing to KK, AA, and 99 that got there.

Check- jam, and its not even close. Let villain feel compelled to C bet his whole range in position when checked to after he 3 bet pre to extract max value out of whis whole range, then jam.

This line also widens your range alot, and its alot harder to range you accurately for villain cause you can have so many hands with the check-jam line on this board. You can have sets, semibluffs like strong flushdraws, overpairs, combodraws and so on.

As played, nice job in fading a bad flop, so pretty easy check/jam at this point for me.

GcluelessNLnoobG

You opened the pot with only two players left to act. Your range is really wide and villain can correctly be 3-betting pretty wide. Most villains will not, but I still don’t feel our hand is remotely overepped when we 4/bet jam 50 straddles deep SB vs. straddle. I wouldn’t be surprised by getting calls from hands like 88/AQ or worse.

There’s no reason to be donking here. Easy check.

Jamming here pf is generally terrible advice, people. Come on. What worse calls us and what better folds? Their calling range is going to be something like AA-KK, maybe the 1 combo of QQ, and some AK

Cawl and play some pokers

Very nice .. flat and play some OOP poker ...

Jamming, or even Donking 2/3 pot, pretty much eliminates all V bluffs more than it would PF with cards already out there ... so I like the c/jam. Although you could still be running into a buzz saw you did get chips out of the TT-JJ crowd that may not have called a PF re-raise/jam. GL

Villain straddles for 6 UTG, folds all the way to Hero in SB who raises to 19 with QQ, folds to villain who gives it some thought before raising to 56. Hero flats.

Flop: 962 (Pot~110)

Hero checks, villain bets 80, hero..?

Villain has around 150 behind at this point. Good time to rip it in or just flat and see what the turn brings?

Wanted to respond to this since you put up some good questions, not just for this hand but in general. See my responses in green.

Check-jam (cant see any upsides really to flat with this hand in this spot with these stacksizes OOP), even though regarding his sizing of almost 2/3 pot i am gonna be prepeared to run into KK/AA a decent amount of the time.

Just rip it in. He might call with worse given the drawy nature of the board (both being on a draw himself or putting us on one). Just flatting here when committed and allowing a terrible card to peel off (of which there are a few), or allowing him to check back the turn (if that's our plan) are both yuck.

GimoG

Rip it in OTF

Thanks for the responses

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