This one feels like it should be standard but I'm struggling with it a bit.

What's this villain's range pre and on the flop, and what's my play?

Villain: Very strong thinking TAG, not out of line, shows down solid values, great table presence. Just a sharp dude and very intelligent, good sense of humor.

Hero: TAG with strong winning image. I'm using my image to bluff certain villains like crazy and haven't had to show down any spew. Maybe ironically then, I suspect villain may view me as tight and unimaginative, ABC TAG getting hit with the deck.

Eff Stacks: ~$500

Limp, Villain in CO raises to 25, Hero 3-bets to 75 from BB with red AhAd. Folds to villain who calls after thinking (outward hemming and hawing, having fun with it) for 10 seconds.

Flop: QcTc6x, pot ~$150

Hero bets $75, Villain raises to $200.

Hero?

You're ahead of most of his range which I would say is mostly club combo draws, but obv includes QQ and TT. I could see him showing up with AJ/KJ/J9 clubs here a lot of times.

It sucks, but I'm probably getting it all in here a lot of the time.

I think his range could include alot of things. Maybe flush draws, straight draws, combo draws. Maybe TPGK. Maybe Pair+sds. TT. Qts? less lkely. Id expect him to 4bet QQ a lot. Some complete air balls? Meh, probably not.

I think this is a decent range assumption.

If i'm in villans spot with these stacks im flatting pretty much all of this range otf for a few reasons, but that's just me.

In your spot i'm definitely getting it in. Were close to the top of our flop cbetting range. If a thinking player is raising with something close to the above range I guesstimated, were being exploited pretty badly if we fold AA. imo

Hemming and hawing preflop makes this really interesting.

A few things:

- You think he's as light as Jc9c pre-flop?

- Against your range of QQ, TT, AJcc, KJcc, J9cc, we 're like a 70:30 dog. I'd add AKcc and remove J9cc. We're a 75:25 dog against that range, or, as I wondered at the table, am I facing a range of hands that only includes hands for a) which I have 2 + some fraction of running straight outs or b) which have ~12-15 outs against me? If so, I need to decide what to do based on the combo density of those hands in his actual range. I commited $150, he's not raise/folding here, so I'm effectively getting 650:350 or 1.8:1+ to go with the hand (~35% equity).

- I think he will flat QQ pre - he'll see my 3-bet range as quite nutted.

- Would he fast play sets like this? Do we need to discount those? He'll think my range is pretty face up as AK, QQ+, maybe JJ.

- As I was tanking, I said "KJ of clubs?" to him, and he said, "way better."

- Is he ever bluffing with a hand like JJ? I think he sees me as such a bet/folding TAG.

pretty much all of this. if you fold this hand against a very strong player, you don´t really have a continuation range on that board except QQ and AK

i would have bet/folded 100 on flop. 75 might seem weak like ak to him, and prompt a semi bluff.

He is raising an ABC player after that player 3 bet from blinds smallis 3x.

Ummm, unless he is more aggro than i get in the description, then i am folding but i do hate that i have to do it after cbetting only half pot. When i bet fold i want them to KNOW i have a hand. Then semi bluff is more unlikely by them.

Flop raises for this size are overwhelming for value though with two pair+. QQ and TT and solidly in his range where many suited connectors should not be since stacks are only around 100bb. He isnt a dummy gambling fishing for flops i dont think.

I fold.



and FWIW balance is not an issue.

He MUST fastplay sets. He didnt raise that big though. He cannot afford to allow a ton of action killing turn cards to fall. He has to pump the pot some now----as i would 100%

and yes if he sees you this way---your 75 cbet could make him rep QQQ or TTT -----however coulda woulda shoulda-----usually players just call for a ton of reasons in their head----then look at the nuts. Its tough due to your cbet, but still.

If you assign him sets, all Ax club combos and KJ club combo, you're way behind. Even throw in a JJ bluff, you're still behind. Time to fold.

Thanks guys.

Results:

Against a solid TAG who would call the 3bet with a tight range I'd prefer c/c flop instead of b/f. What worse hands do we get value from? KK I guess? AQs? JJ? He's most likely going to bet the flop with JJ/AQs for protection/value, KK plays itself out for the most part, and we give him a chance to put us on AK/JJ and take a stab.

As played folding to the raise is standard since his range is sets and big flush draws that have gutters+ on this board. We can really only continue if we think he's exploiting us and raising with a range much wider than that.

Anyone want a larger raise pre-flop? OOP and 100 BB deep, a raise to $100 would make flop decision much less tricky (wouldn't have worked out here, obviously).

You guys think on avg. a thinking tag is flatting QQ to a 3b in a CO vs BB scenario against another tag?

It's a good question. I do think my image is on the tighter side of TAG.

One issue I struggle with here - if villain is indeed so tight, should we be checking this flop? Against his range, we're sort of wa (JJ), wb (QQ, TT), or susceptible to large bluffs we might not be able to call.

Is there value in a c-bet? It's certainly not a bluff.

I mean, I continued with the c-bet because I have AA damnit and got one caller in a heads up pot. Standard, right? But when I really think about his range and how he would perceive my range, I wonder if c-betting is a mistake here.

$95 pre. I'm not folding. All in.

Given how tight a range you provided for villian's tend to flat 3bs, how do you plan on exploiting him in the future?

In and OOP w/100bb eff vs his LP opens, with & w/o a limper as this generally changes things quite a bit if he iso's a bunch.

If you really think hes playing that tight against your 3b where you're not even including AQ and other strong broadways in his range, i'd just flat this pre.

I'd also adjust by widening my 3b bluff range (until he readjusts) because it would mean he's opening/isoing 1 limper here with a good chunk of the deck and folding pretty much everything.