2/5 NL
Hero: covers, MAWG reg, taggy reg, winner in the room and Asian V def knows this. Nothing crazy from me this session
V1: about 700$, late 20s Asian nitty tag reg, I've played with him about 10 times over the last year and he is confirmed nitty. Even fish give him a hard time about never playing hands. Given this, I think he is a decent hand reader and prob squeaks out as a smaller winner in the room
V2: about 600$, older fat guy, also a reg and he is one of the biggest spots in the whole room. Buys in for min every time. This session he is in for about his 5th BI and was once almost even, but he dipped down. He's just a big ole fish

The hand:
V1 opens to $20 in MP3, V2 calls otb, hero calls in BB with A♦️3♦️. I do not remember V1 opening for 20$ too often, usually it's 25$. But there were no limpers and he had v2 behind, so maybe he wanted to keep it small-ish to make sure B2 didn't go anywhere...I really don't know

The flop: Q♦️9♦️5♦️ ($60)
Even though Asian V is nitty, he cbets almost all the time. I very rarely slow play, so I typically lead here. But given that Asian V has a high cbet frequency and v2 is likely to stick around with any piece, I check. Asian V cbets $40, V2 makes it $85....
Hero?

Regardless, calling and raising look equally strong...

Flat, let V1 come along. I'd then lead most turns.

Flat. Let's give V1 a chance to make a really big mistake.

Would rather just raise now

You're not getting more than one street of value from someone with 2p or a set anyway (especially the nit) so I would rather get stacks in vs flushes now before board pairs or 4th diamond comes and kills action.

Does nitty v.cbet every time mw as well? He's oop vs a whale mw, I would be surprised if he cbets wide here. I like flatting here and forcing a mistake. I don't like checking otf either even with our nitty villain cbetting often. Do we know what the whales minraise means?

OP, it's hard to give you advice when your description of the most important player in the hand (V2) is incomplete at best. What is our general game plan to stack him? Is he the kind to overvalue his hand? Is he a "see where I'm at" type of player? Is his raise sizing indicative of his hand strength one way or another?

I'm pretty indifferent on calling/raising. Based on V1, you're only getting more out of him if he's at the very top of his range here. That's KJ, KQ, KK, QQ. Whether or not you believe V1's raising KJs in MP is up to your knowledge of his game. My guess is not always.

Secondly, since we're OOP, we need to have assumptions about how V2 continues in the hand. If you 3bet, what's he shipping with? What's he calling/folding? If you call, is he firing turn? When he does, what's he calling a c/shove with?

I tend to agree with Disko,I think flatting looks stronger than raising and raising keeps some Adx semi bluffs in your range.

200 hunnit

The only hands V1 might continue with are sets or maybe KK (I suppose AQ but you hold the A, so is a super nitty dude really going to invest any more money in this hand without hitting a runner runner boat?).

Based on reads, all effort should be maximizing against V2. If he's a station fish, then a small 3! to $150 sets us up to 3/4 PSB on turn and 2/3 PSB all-in on the river. The drawback to this plan is that unless V2 is drawing to a flush, any kills the action, so if he will call a bigger 3!, then make a bigger 3!.

btw - I think your plan to check and let V1 bet kind of back fired here. Had you led instead, your range would still be wide and a 3! might be viewed differently than doing it now.

I raise to 170-200ish. V1 will come along if he has a decent hand. Otherwise, main focus should be V2. Doesn't look like he will lay down top pair, 2 pairs, sets, smaller flushes etc.

Bet 180-200 on turn. Remaining on River.

Many cards can kill your action on the turn so in these spots I like to play fast and get most of the chips in before the board gets any dirtier.

a good pro would realize how strong a cold call is, but this hand is 2/5 vs a nit and a fish.

call and stack them both

I just think calling is really bad and leaves open possibility of a catastrophe (action killing turn)

Everyone suggesting calling is saying that it gives villain chance to make a mistake but calling in this spot is so insanely strong that even the worst villains are pumping the brakes

Basically if you call you'll get an extra 40 or whatever in the pot from 2p and sets on the flop (he's actually correctly calling for boat odds) and probably nothing else from non flushes on later streets and leave open possibility of killing action

If you raise you lose the extra 40 from 2p or sets a lot of the time but allow yourself to get it in vs flushes right now because you don't have to worry about action killers and villains are so used to seeing people badly slowplay the nuts that he's not worried about hero having nuts right now

When you're in this spot your goal should be to get stacks in not nickel and dime villains who are never getting it in unless they boat up

I agree with you here. We should be concerned about stacking V2 because based on V1's description, my guess is he's folding ~85% of the time. The thing is, though, why is V2 raising? What does his raise size mean?

All we know is that V2 is a mark. Some bad players will raise their QJ in an attempt to "protect" their hand. Others are so loose-passive that they're only raising 2P+ on the flop. We don't yet know what kind of player V2 is and this is where OP comes in.

We want V2 to commit the most chips with the largest possible portion of his range. I legitimately think flop 3bet, stop & go, call c/r turn are all viable options until we know more.

The fact that there are 10-12 outs that might kill action shouldn't preclude you from calling if V2's tendencies make it the best play.

I highly disagree that V1 is folding this flop 85% of the time. After we call, he'll be getting 6:1 closing the action with a hand that he elected to c-bet this flop with. He's folding maybe 25% of the time max. Given that V1 and V2 likely have a piece of this board (flush, pair + FD, set, two pair) the likelihood of an action killing card hitting the turn goes down.

What would you do with AdXx? I think a raise loses V1 unless he has top set, and he might even fold that against two players. If V2 will go for it with a small flush, raising and not worrying about V1's folding might be best.

In game I probably flat, but I hate slow-playing

So would you rather let a set see the turn with the correct odds and leave you clueless when the board pairs?

Who would be clueless if the board pairs? If you can't tell from you opponents what's up when this board pairs, leave the table. Serious MUBs.

I love it that you guys always single me out in these posts when I've just agreed with the majority of other posters -- or at least many other posters. Makes me realize how valuable my posts are.

I think this is going to be a repeat of the last thread. and this isn't even a deep stack poker spot.

I've never in my life seen a mawg tag CHECK RAISE COLD 3BET a monotone flop with a NIT cbet and big fish in the middle without the nuts. Ever. And people itt are advocating to do just that.

play the mawg image to your advantage. typical mawg is getting cold feet 3betting anything less than the nuts. But they won't fold baby flushes, two pair, sets, and QxAd etc.

vs that range and the fishes range the nit should be stuffing QQ, 99

lol @ nit stuffing QQ, 99 in this spot against 2 others on a monotone board facing a c/r and cold-call

Why don't you re read the hand history and comments again before making another stupid post

I didn't say anything about a nit re raising all in vs mawg tag cold cr 3b with QQ.

if hero cold calls it would be nits action $45 to call. if hero cr cold 3b nit gets to play perfect/ off the hook really easy. stacks are going in on later streets regardless vs described fish.

that's what you said.

No. Re Read the op and all the comments again buddy. I think you need more help than just getting good at poker.

I said nit should be shoving vs a typical mawg cold call range of (two pair, sets, baby flushes and QxAd) with a fish in the middle

Again too lazy to the exact math but I'm positive it's a shove for the nit with QQ, 99.

It's amazing as well that people don't realize / are forgetting when action goes back to nit $45 to call they are put in exactly the same situation as hero (lol scared about those oh so scary turns and rivers) except v has a perceived stronger range