2/5 NL

Hero: 30ish WG TAG, 1k stack, new table been running about 30 minutes

BTN: LP MAWG, 400 stack

BB: Upper 20s Asian male, reg, TAG bordering on sLAG

I get A:A: in CO I 20 BTN calls BB 3 bets 110. Hero?

So this is a textbook spot where BB should be squeezing pretty wide. I'm opening pretty wide in the CO, which he knows, and BTN is calling a ton, probably ~40% of hands, which he should also know having seen BTN playing most hands so far. And BB's sizing looks like a squeeze. Most value 3 bets I see here are sized closer to 80.

Should I consider flatting here in position? BTN may or may not overcall but if he does call I have an SPR of around 1 with him so am never folding vs him. Meanwhile I set up an SPR of 2.7 to 3.7 with BB depending whether BTN overcalls or not, either scenario of which is pretty good with Aces.

My question then is do we prefer flatting AA vs. a suspected squeeze or do we 4-bet as usual? Or use a mixed strategy? If we do 4-bet, what sizing should we use knowing BB may be relatively weak?

And furthermore, how would we respond in this scenario with other premium hands: particularly KK QQ and AK.

I think flatting QQ is too risky and probably same with AK. KK might be worth the risk.

Thoughts?

Whats BBs stack size? $900ish I guess?

Id say a mixed strategy is best (as it usually is) if this guy is a reg that you see a lot. If its a random guy you've never seen before, Id just 4 bet every time.

I think this is a trivial flat if the villain is aggressive and squeezing here versus your cutoff open and hasn't done so much himsel. He will bet two streets big with all his numerous bluffs to continue the story. Or if he checks to you with middling value, you can bet 40% pot flop, check turn, and jam river to appear bluffing and for max value.

for most villians 4Bs are going to look very strong and fold out bluffs and or 99/TT/AQ. I could see min 4B versus a drooler as viable or if you have a dynamic with 4Bs already going it being an option.

How often will BTN shove if we flat? If its more than 20-30 percent than call. In these spots I tend to make the obvious smallish 4! if i have any dynamic with the squeezer. With everyone tending to c-bet small on dryer boards, I find that flatting lets them get away for fairly cheap on bad boards for their range. I don't want to lose value for the times he has JJ plus and AK. If he's squeezing too wide here and snap folds to our 4!. I will open up a four bet bluffing range to include A4, suited and K9 suited type hands. Plus winning $130 or 26 big blinds pre is a decent worst case scenario. If you do decide to flat, the 3. 6 or 2.6 stack to pot ratio means that you should never be folding post as played.

My bad I thought I had included his stack but it's also about 1k.

I know he's a reg but I haven't personally played much with him so I can't be totally sure he's squeezing.

Adam Levine I think BTN is very rarely shoving. He's passive enough he might flat call some hands like JJ to KK AK but he probably flat calls again with most of these. Probably jams KK if he flats it. Maybe QQ AK.

I would never ever flat here unless I had very good reasons to. You should be 4-betting here 2.2-2.3x IP. Do not 4b too big, esp IP. You want a cheaper price on your bluffs, and given they’re oop, they’ll make more mistakes when they call more vs your 4b range.

If 4bs look too strong and they fold too much, start 4-betting more wheel suited aces and more bluffs. you have the best hand in hold em. Play it like it is. People dont 3b and then fold enough vs 4bets live.

You didnt give us reads that he’s a reg that barrels way too much post and folds to too much preflop aggression. So flatting here is leaving a lot of money on the table. Plus winning 20+ bb uncontested is great.

I wouldnt read too much into the sizing. OOP a lot of regs 3b 4x. So if we do 4x + 1, we get $100. Adding an extra bb vs your open because he’s deep or for whatever reason in this situation doesnt make it more bluff heavy. If anything, he should be 3betting bigger given he’s 200bb deep

And i wouldnt read too much into the fact that the BTN is capped, you’re opening wide, and so this is a classic squeeze. A lot of regs are just 3-betting because they have a strong hand here. Yeah sure online this happens more frequently and you can start consider flatting premiums, but live people tend to just call call call. Usually when they reraise, they have a hand they like.

The problem with 4betting esp if you’ve been playing snug is... V will fold QQ/AK sometimes... I saw someone at my table 3b/openfold QQ in a similar spot yesterday (CO vs BB) for a $60 to $400 (shove) 4b.

4b shoving and 4betting small are different. I dont think most players can fold QQ/AKs to a small 4b, say $130 vs the $60 3b.

And if they really do fold QQ, we should be adding more bluffs. And i personally dont think a majority of people (>50%) are folding QQ to a 4b

$250.

Agreed... although ironically, QQ should be doing better against a 4b shove than a small 4b imo... the V shoving $400 effective showed AKs..

I did 4 bet to exactly 250 and he snap folded. Hindsight always 20/20 but seems like faced with a high probability he's squeezing I should flat IP at least some of the time.

What’s wrong with scooping 31 bb uncontested?

Im sure if you ran this scenario 100 times, it’s really unlikely there would be a “high” probability of him folding.

As far as I know, "squeezing" is not necessarily bluffing. A squeeze is just a re-raise with one or more callers in between. So if he has KK, he's still squeezing.

I think most people do use the word "squeeze" to mean reraising after a raise and call but I dont know why the word is used in that context. Why not just use "3 bet" for a normal reraise and "squeeze" when you sense the guy is making a move? Thats what I thought the word meant when I started playing poker but it seems its lost that meaning now.

Back to the hand...if Im going to 4 bet, its going to be bigger than $250. The guy may have folded to any size 4 bet if he was making a move, but $250 makes it really obvious that you want a call. I doubt you would make it $250 with A5s or AK or anything other than AA/KK.

It reminds me of when I open to $20 and an OMC makes it $40. He has AA/KK every time. I call when I have a hand that can bust AA and we are deep enough....but we dont have to be all that deep since its only $20 more and I know what he has.

The 4 bet to $250 isnt anywhere near as bad as my example, but its a similar idea. Its just really obvious you want a call.

Nothing wrong with scooping 31BB, just considering if it might be more +EV to go into a low SPR pot in position with a hand 80%+ favorite over villains whole range, where I can win 200BB+ some decent percentage of the time.

Mike what is your 4 bet sizing? You think he calls or 5 bets 300 but not 250?

Squeezing I have always seen used contextually to mean 3-betting large after a wide open and one or more wide calls, usually made from the blinds, with the primary aim of scooping up the money or else isolating one player. I suppose we can separate "value squeezes" from "light squeezes" but most are going to be light since the goal is to put the PFR and caller in a nasty spot where they have to fold a ton. At least that's my understanding of a "squeeze play". If an OMC 3-bet to 80 from the blinds I would just call it a 3-bet because he probably isn't trying to squeeze anyone out of the pot.

Also 4 bets are usually relatively much smaller than 3 bets no?

Like Janda uses in his examples open to 3BB 3 bet to 11BB and 4 bet to 24BB, 5 bet to 36.5 BB, 6 bet shove.

In a live 200BB game with larger opens and callers in between these tend to be bigger obviously but I don't think 2.5xing a 3-bet is unusual. Is it? I think it's my standard sizing here with my whole 4-bet range in position. Might up it to 300 sometimes, but anything more seems like "I want you to shove".

Correction Janda uses 5-bets as shoves 100BB deep. Sorry for triple post. I hate I can't edit post on my phone.

2,5x is indeed a standard sizing here in position, but his 3bet was kind of big. Had he made it 90, I still would have preferred ~250 though, because we're pretty deep. And if I had been out of position, I would have 4bet bigger in this case.

I don't mind flatting occasionally, but when we're 200bb deep 4betting just seems far better.

Honestly, in the games I play I probably see a 4 bet like once every 100+ hours. I assume Id see more if I played after midnight when stacks get deeper. So Im not going to say Im the authority on 4 bets, but Im pretty sure you aren't going to 4 bet to $250 even IP with AK or anything other than AA/KK..maybe QQ. Its just an obvious "please call me so I can have an easier time stacking you 200BBs deep" raise size.

With AK, I bet you either 4 bet much larger or just call IP. I dont believe youre ever going to 4 bet lite with something like A5s to just $250. IMO, you're giving your hand away to a decent player. If you read a book or watch a training video it probably does say that $250 is the correct amount for AA, but again that's why its so obvious to a good player. This guy may not be good though, I dont know.

This is just me, but Id rather shove and make it look like I have AK than to 4 bet that small. If he has a pocket pair hes not far off from profitably set mining you this deep. Hes calling an additional $140 to win a total of $1130.

That's my point. Good players know that. Whats standard sizing for AK? Id rather do that than make my 4 bet size the standard for AA if villain knows what standard sizing for AA is. If villain is a fish then $250 is perfect.

Mike, I don't think that is true at all. If anything, smaller 4bets are generally more likely 4bet/folds, so bluffs or even AK/AQ/JJ when we're deep, than AA/KK. Most of the time of course any 4bet is AA/KK in a typical low stakes live game, but I'm obviously talking about the players whose 4bet ranges are wider than AA/KK alone.

In principle, you wanna size your 4bets the same, wether you have A5s, AK or AA, don't you? At least I do, unless my opponent is a non- or level 1-thinking player. And in terms of sizing I want them to think I can still get away from my hand if need be, so I'm not 4betting half my stack or whatever.

You could be right, especially for deeper games. My games rarely get more than 1 or 2 stacks up to 200BBs so I don't see many 4 bets.

Mike maybe try 4betting to the same size then.

If $250 is “obviously AA” then you should be sizing the same with AK/A5s.

My instinct tells me that the higher percentage is that the 3 bettor is a good playing squeezing lite, the more often we should make it $250 with AK or A5s. The problem is that I know for a fact that Ill never be in this situation often enough in the next 10,000 hours to test my theory...so it will have to just stay a theory in my head.

If Im gonna make it the same size all the time, Id rather shove every time with AA, AK and A5s. Im not saying this is the highest EV play overall, but I do think you get called lighter by people who dont believe you would shove AA, and alot of those "lighter" hands that you get called by you still have good equity against when you have AK and A5s.

I was thinking $240 to go in this spot. I can see a flat too assuming we are confident we can get away from AA on ugly boards (and especially if BTN might spazz). But my experience with not 4! AA, especially close to 200 deep is not all that great (could be skewed with just some bad results of course, but my memory seems to indicate that is has turned out poorly).

Basically, if u made it $250 and everyone insta folded, it is highly unlikely you were getting 2 full streets postflop unless you were way behind.