In the SB 9 handed, straddled pot with AQo

Villain (~$1200 effective, I have him covered) calls UTG as well as the rest of the table, I squeeze to $115.

Villain calls and everyone else folds.

Flop 3c 4d 5s

I bet $175, villain calls.

Turn 5d

I check, villain thinks for a bit and bets $330.

I think for a while and jam for around $650 more.

Villain shrugs and calls it off.


**** SPOILER****


River is Js and villain mucks, says he had 6d7d



Feedback would be appreciated realizing this is the best possible outcome. We played a bunch of big pots and thought he put me on nothing. He says I cN never have aces there but I disagreed. At the end of the day I wasn’t trying to represent aces just thought he was chasing me down w/nothing. Decision maker for me was &330 bet after I checked. Thought he was looking for a fold.

Thoughts?

Don't post results, and I think you've got his hand or the board wrong because why would he muck a straight.

When he said you can't have AA maybe he was referring to the turn, because checking the turn with AA doesn't seem that great here. I'm not sure what hands you want to c/r that turn with, but there aren't many. Maybe something like 53o that I decided to try and steal preflop with.

I'm not sure why you read much into $330 on the turn. It's about half pot. It seems like a reasonable sized bet as either a bluff or for value.

All in all I'm not sure I really like your play on any street in this hand. Pre-flop with offsuit ace type hands can be pretty tricky. In a straddle pot like this your only good options are to either limp/check or try to raise big and take it down or limit the callers. Neither situation is all that great when you will be playing OOP the rest of the hand. Even a hand as strong as AQo is going to struggle here. I think limping is fine, but your play and size has merit as well.

I guess the flop c-bet is OK. When it gets called I think you have to range him on a draw, a middle PP, or a flopped monster. If I'm checking this turn it's probably to check/fold. If you're going to continue with this hand, I think a big turn bet puts a lot of pressure on most of his range. Your CRAI play *maybe* gets him off the mid pair type hands, but I think a good bet accomplishes the same, if not better.

am I reading this correctly...villain folded a straight on the river when a total blank came?

Flop bet is too big. Bet half pot or just over.

c betting turn comes down to your image/villain tendency..can we get him to fold 88-jj type hands?

Honestly, if you're going to check raise turn, I'd probably do it on the flop instead, when you have more equity if called

Your right the board is wrong, he mucked a busted open ended straight flush.

Should have been a 2 not. A 3

Gross, Id check fold this flop as it connects with villains flatting range a lot more than ours. I think that AQ is the worst hand we can show up with in this spot. If you can't get seven high to fold, then you are not getting much.Raise pre is standard (albeit sizing seems huge, anyone else?).

Sizing is large because it's a straddled pot where the entire table called the $10 LOL! I think it's totally fine, risking $115 to win $77 where no one is heavily invested in the pot, if someone calls with a weaker range, fine, take AQ to the flop getting great odds.

This flop is not one that I where I would get involved with AQo, so many better flops. There are certainly times where you'd hit your gutshot and be no good facing some very large bets. V call range is heavily weighted towards small pairs but with a whole table full of $10 limpers, who knows...

Looks like a great game,sizing is still to big because UTG and UTG1 had to have limped which leaves you overexposed to a limp-re raise. But if you got called by 7 high, i guess that works too.

Preflop: If UTG limps along with the rest of the table as stated and your trying to squeeze in order to take down the pot preflop I would say your sizing is to small ($115 to win $82) especially playing AxQx offsuit OOP post flop... Had you truly been squeezing to take the pot down preflop I would have sized larger $150-$155 range. If your objective was to ISO say 1-2 callers and play AxQx OOP I think the sizing is fine but as stated this hand can cause problems post flop when playing OOP so personally I prefer stealing the dead money with a larger Pre flop squeeze sizing or limp calling Pre just my personal preference.

As Played Flop: This flop is not great by any means for your preflop squeezing range... I do not like leading $175 into Villian on such a board texture... this board texture hits his/her preflop defending range much more so then your preflop squeeze range.. when we think about villians Preflop defending range he often shows up with suited connectors, and mid PPs all of which hit this flop or are drawing to made hands... why not just check/call the flop if we are so inclined to peel a turn card, maybe Villian checks back flop and we see a free then card and re eval post turn. I do think when you lead flop on such a board texture your hand more often looks like Ax high hands rather than the big pair your trying to rep.
I think the story of a large PP looks more believable if the hands plays out were you ca check/raise the flop as opposed to leading flop

Turn: The only way I am check raising this turn card AI is if I have a very specific read
On my opponent and lots of history with them...you have Ace high and given the action through the turn I would say 95% of the time your turn c/r is only ever getting called by better...if your opponent has 88-JJ it's a snap call imo given the price they are getting and let's not disregard flopped sets or straights and turned boats in the villians preflop defending range...

River: Irrelevant money AI OTT

Overall: Personally I would have not played this hand this way but that is what makes poker so fun and exciting... lastly, try to keep the emotions out of your game if possible you state that " you felt like your opponent put you on nothing" essentially you scooped a $2K+ pot with "nothing" but Ace high...

I think this post nails it. The CRAI is burning money.

Assuming $10 straddle, I think your PF squeeze is okay.

I have some ?s about your post-flop play:
1. The flop is pretty dry, but what range do you put your opponent on to flat your squeeze? And what are you trying to represent if you get called, especially since V1's call may induce additional (pot odds) calls.
2. Do you think V1 is capable of just floating you on the flop and then trying to outplay you in position on the turn?
3. Are you prepared for a call to your flop c-bet of ~60% pot? Pot is already bloated to ~$300 (60BBs) and if V1 calls, he has 25% of his stack committed to this hand. If he raises the flop for info, regardless of his holding, I think you're in bad spot/easy fold, because then the pot has become significantly larger and he's got over a third of his stack involved.
4. A CRAI on the turn of his $330 bet is giving him 3:1 on the rest of money. A bluff with another ~25% of hist stack means he's willing to bluff off ~50%, blowing back most of what is most likely a pretty good win - not knowing the results I would put a semi-bluff as not likely as the pot is already bloated to ~$600 after flop action. I am more inclined to say that he has a hand with showdown value. If he puts you on AQ/AK then your 15% six outer still needs him to call off the river and I think you're still slightly (3-5%) -EV...and that's if your one pair wins.

I think you can reduce your PF squeeze, to say $75 if you suspect all weak limpers, reducing some of the early bloatings which then allows for smaller bet sizing on the flop and further reduces post-flop bloat and giving you more fold equity when you miss and/or get raised on the flop. A PF squeeze of ~$150-175 should help you narrow and define opponent ranges.

Also, not to say you don't have the knowledge, but your info doesn't tell me you've thought out more streets on deeper/higher levels which when you're playing those stacks and bet sizes in a 2-5 game is something I think gives you a better chance for profitable results.