V1 ($350) MABG - Bought in for $300 and been at the table for about an hour. Not played too many hands. Has opened to $15 three times, won twice, no showdowns. Mostly been tight and quiet.

V2 ($500) MAAG - Pretty fishy. Played a few other times. Sees way too many flops, often limp-calling oop. I classify him as a "competent-ish station." Plays a lot of hands passively, but generally bets large when he has a nuttish hand. Just sat down this hand.

Hero ($900) = 20s. Been tightening up my game (not squeezing or opening at will anymore, trying to play fewer hands). Playing mostly straightforward TAG, but keeping a move or two in the arsenal.


V1 (UTG) opens $15, 2 folds, V2 (MP) calls, Hero (HJ) AA 3bet to $60 (probably should have gone about $80 - 90 to punish the stations), folds, V1 calls, V2 calls.

Flop (~$180): 5 7 9

V1 checks, V2 donks $100, Hero?

I have lots of thoughts, but I'd like to hear other perspectives.

Looks like a raise and get it in against fishy villain. Any thoughts on what a donk means?

If you expect V2 to bet large with nutted hands then I'm feeling pretty good about his 1/2 pot lead here so I raise/felt. If V1 does anything but fold, it's a pretty gross spot but shouldn't happen very often with his description.

Raise/gii. Folding would be a mistake and calling could make turns more difficult to play by altering equity/killing action. Raise gii with whatever sizing you think will induce v to stack off the lightest.

It's tempting for a moment to flat for a few reasons, but having him bet-f the worst hand here a still a pretty desirable result. Anything he's betting has some equity, even if it's bd hearts w TTh or 88 or anything that isn't too far behind. Its a nice sized pot and there isn't much value in having him just ck-f a turn nor are you thrilled calling another bet on most cards. Let him throw his equity away and take it down via jam.

looks like 9x or a draw, ship it. if he shows up with more, oh well. calling on such a draw heavy board is a mistake.

Gii. SPR is about 2.5.

Fold.

Ship. What value hand that beats AA is going to bet barely half pot on a flop like this 3 way? Thats not how fish think. When fish have big hands they want everyone to fold, so they bet pot, or jam, or go for the check-raise jam. His donkbet looks like what it is, some pair that probably has a little drawing equity to go with it, 9T, 89, J9 etc. He probably thinks he can just take the initiative from you as if your preflop raise meant nothing. I dont expect him to call that many shoves, but even if you flat his raise your hand is pretty much face up to the extent that it looks like an overpair at least, NFD at worst. Not going to let him set his own price to hit a draw, nothing else left to do but shove with that sizing.

You have a premium hand that needs protection here so all in seems the only play here from my oppinion. I will raise all in and not x3 or something like that because the spr is so small and i want to do the same with bluffs here. Now I realize that i'm a bit unbalance here because i have few blufs but anyway how many time this spot occurs when a guy donks and both players are recreational

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This board is way too drawy to fold against a fish, unless he is passive enough to only call with draws? Have you seen him raise a draw? Is this a "large" bet for him?

If there is a chance he has a draw, gii; if he's only betting with hands that beat AA, you can fold.

Based on OP's read I'm never raising

can def find a hero fold and not tell anyone what i did

I'm basically never folding but OP says he bets large with nuttish holdings. Is he ever doing this with TT, A7hh, or is this bet only sets? Need a stone cold read of the latter to consider anything but raising

This just isn't one of those spots.

Based on the villain I probably call and evaluate the turn. On turn blanks if he fires I probably call again, on bad turns probably fold. Then when we get to a river probably fold if he bets, regardless of what the river is. Based on the description I doubt he would bet river as a bluff (combo draw or pair+draw that didn't improve)


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You can raise or call. Imo he's probably not folding so I like raise. I also prefer jamming. Preflop is ok given stacks and IP but if they're not folding to $90, then yea, make it $90. If it was the first time 3betting them and I didn't know how they react, $60 is good.

Planning on playing a river with these stacks is fantasy. Turn pot will be $380 with $340 behind. You can make an argument for calling flop but on the turn you're either folding or felting almost always.

Thanks for all the responses. Really appreciate it.

I didn't really think V was that strong here. As some have mentioned, he probably goes for a x/r with a set or straight. I put him on anything from 88/66 to 8xhh/6xhh. We don't have the Ah, so he could have a NFD. Maybe pair plus GS. Maybe even TT (i think he would flat TT but 3b JJ+ based on strong suspicions).

I really don't know - this was just my thought process at the time. If he's observant (who knows), he's probably seen me squeeze in previous sessions, and could easily put me on a non over pair hand based on that and the smallish sizing.

I guess my main questions are these:

1. When we shove, are we getting called by worse?

2. Does it make sense to raise less than a shove to keep in some of his weaker hands/draws and possibly entice V1 to jam or at least call?

3. Is folding a terrible option since we are at the top of our range other than 99? Raise-folding is obv torching money.

Any feedback welcomed. Thanks.

I like mixing it up here.. you can call and get it in on non 46T / hearts or just get it in now. Maybe like a 30%/70% mix. I think folding is bad. Until a fish shows me hes donking with 2pair+ my read remains that hes a fish

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1. Not often. We're really shoving to give him bad odds to call with whatever he has. He's already committed the $100 so thats out of his hands now, we need to tax him again if he indeed has a draw.

2. Even if you minraised to $200 I cant imagine V1 stays in the pot unless he has an equally strong draw, in which case minraising would be a mistake. You could make it $300 and come out ahead. I say just shove because it guarantees to get all the money in and doesnt let them fold the turn unimproved. A lot of fish have a hard time folding flops but as long as they get to see a blank turn they'll let it go.

3. Folding is terrible because we can never know for sure what he's betting half pot with, and there's just too many other hands a fish might think are the best that we'd be giving up. He could have JJ here and thinks he needs to "see where he's at" or "protect his hand" from AK. If he had donked like $200 or even donk jammed maybe then I would consider a fold because that kind of bet looks a lot more like he's terrified of anyone drawing out on him, so he's just trying to take it down now, i.e. 2 pair or better. Even then I've had a fish call my raise preflop with KK and then just open shove the flop and act shocked when I call and turn over AA.

He has no reason to donkbet here, anything that smashed this flop would be best served either by x/r allin or x/c any bet you make. Donkbets tend to only fold out worse hands and get called by better one's, something fish sorely fail to understand. This is why we must at least call.