AP: I'd fold OTF. You have done nothing but shown strength and still get popped. Think it's time to let it go.

Imho, pre is a flat. And then fit/fold post flop. 3!-ing a "marginal" hand OOP is a high variance spot. It would be more interesting with JJ, but 99 and maybe TT are easy flat OOP imho. IP sure 3! is almost mandatory.

It is hard to take control of a hand OOP and especially with a "marginal" hand. You'd generally need a lot of help from the flop to continue aggressively and feeling good about it.

Wouldn't the fact that so many people flat this pf with 99 make a pf 3-bet look really strong?

Results:

Who cares what it looks like.

It's about making money.
We don't 3b/not 3b based on how 'strong' it looks. We 3b based on our ability/likelihood to make money then and afterwards in the hand.

A spade means you were definitely drawing to 2 outs.

If he 4bets ak then the only possible naked fd he could have had was ajo, which is questionable if he calls with pre.

then do it with a worse hand.

If V has A5ss in this hand, does he just fold? I think when people make a pair and there's no A/K on the board they just don't fold in a 3b pot with 100bb stacks. Often they close their eyes, stuff it, and hope you had AK and that you might fold AK/99-JJ and still have outs against KK.

Call pre

C/f flop

I disagree. It's often very relevant how strong we look. We get more fold equity when we look strong, and that affects our ability to make money.

I'm not convinced that flatting with 99 is profitable.

it's far more profitable than 3betting it in this situation.

Only a couple of hands are profitable from the BB.

Disadvantage of being OOP hard to overcome.

You only need to play the hand better then -100bb/100 to make it more profitable to
Call then fold.

Ok i have not read the spoiler, but I found this thread interesting so here are my thoughts:

Pre - I like 3betting for pretty similar reasons to the ones you mentioned op. I probably would have sized it at $100 though just to give him a little worse odds since our hand is not that strong.

Flop - Well, there's a lot of things to consider on this flop. My first instinct is yuck - one thing we wanted our 3bet to accomplish was to generate more fold equity on the flop. But that's totally out the window now. Virtually any hand with a and of course any hand with a q or better is never folding. However, I don't hate the showdown value of our hand right now. We beat all x hands that aren't jj or tt or q w/ a . And I think it's reasonable to believe he called us preflop with a wide range that could include any pair, lots ax hands, and maybe even a hand like JTs. Thus, I like going with a check/shove line. I don't like cbetting because we don't have enough FE nor do we have a hand with great equity. I don't like check/folding either because he can easily bet any x hand or a total airball when checked to. In fact, you could even argue that he'd check a decent % of his qx hands when checked to which would weight his flop betting range to a lot of hands we beat. So again, I like a check/shove. And hey, there's no shame in it going check/check. I'm not excited about putting any more money into the pot w/ this hand. If the board runs out bad and we have to check/fold a later street, I'm not gonna be upset about that.

As Played - Alright if you're going to cbet, I hate your bet sizing. Something you asked in the thread....

First thing I recognize about this hand is that if villain has caught any piece of the board, he's basically not folding regardless of the bet size. If he has the A or the K or any Q or even a hand like JJ, it doesn't make much of a difference if you bet $90 or if you bet $150, he's calling either way. So my plan in these situations would be to bet a number which leaves me clearer decisions on later streets - or in this case since we don't have a lot of chips behind - clearer decisions if he shoves. You can do this in one of two ways - either you can bet enough to commit yourself and not fold to any shove, or you can bet small enough to get away and price yourself out of a call if he shoves. Betting $200 would probably put yourself into the former while betting $100 would put yourself into the latter. (Imo). We bet DEAD in the middle of this w/ $150. So. Now. He shoved. And we hate life and don't know what to do. His shoving range is never going to include any hands we're doing great against. I'd probably call just to see what he has, which I can justify because our equity is really close.

Best evidence I've seen to hammer home how important position is. Nice hand. Dozens of excellent articulate, well thought out reasons for each street...

that contradict each other. In all the time I've spent on 2+2, there are tons of posts that let you know when you're right or wrong, ainec. You post a hand and you only get five responses that say "fold pre" and everyone loses interest. Easy decision.

You get 115 posts about 99 in the BB, you've hit a nerve. These spots are the toughest, and really remind you how important every tiny detail can be, and at the same time how no details really matter once you find yourself in the spot.

If you can play perfectly in this spot you are a king. But playing perfectly in this spot might only be worth .1 BB/hr.

I'm reminded of Shania. Decisions in this spot begin to transcend this spot. So much to learn.

Great hand!