Hero playing very nitty TAG style at a table full of pros and one giant whale who's in the game for 8k. Probably recognized as a 2/5 player but not scared money.

Main villain is John the lawyer who's on my immediate right. Xcellent hand reader, lag but smart, capable of huge folds and rediculously light hero calls.

I am the effective stack with 2800 both villains have me covered

Whale opens UTG 35 folds to me on BTN I flat with 22, villain ISO in sb to 105, whale comes along and so do I. Flop KQ2, whale leads 150, I call, v makes it 425, folds to me I make it 1k, he stuffs for my remaining 1800. Hero?

My line looks redic strong calling the donk bet than backraising over a 3b from original raiser who 3b pre raises small over a donk lead and a call.

Questions? What does my hand look like to v on the flop before and after his flop squeeze?

Those advocating fold, What hands do you call with?
Those advocating a call, what hands do you fold?

Yeah, I can see mucking 2's here. If he assumes you 3b K's or Q's pre he could be light jamming w/ A's, that's about the only hand you beat. KQs is also possible figuring he blocks K's and Q's and 2's usually find the muck pre. Based on read and assuming flop is rainbow I can see hero calling. With no history I'd call a random V assuming they could overplay AA or AK and wouldn't be surprised to lose. The more I think about it the more I'm in the call camp. Would definitely fold AK,would tank for 1/2 an hour w/ KQs and then fake an aneurism so I didn't have to act.

I think he would def expect me to 3b Qs and Ks pre to ISO the whales open who's never folding. He's adept and would correctly discount KK and QQ here 100%. I think my hand looks a lot like KQ at worse to V as I would call pre here and flat the flop with a monster on a rainbow board to keep all of his bluffs in then bomb turns and rivers accordingly. With that being said I can't see him going nuts with AA vs my line. I could see him raising flop after two calls with AA, but when I smooth call the donk lead and then backraise 4b his squeeze, he knows that I know that he's not raising light here on the flop and when I take a line that is 100% value/ never bluffs, I feel like he's only putting in more money with hands that beat me.

just call the 425

Against a random V I'd call. If you know this much about V, I assume V knows this much about you and could be squeezing here. Fold can't be terrible. If you know V has a set then fold and don't worry about it.

Never folding.


Also, this.


If you have to think about what to do now, why on Earth are you re-raising him on the flop in position? Makes no sense.

3bet/folding flop with bottom set?

just wow.

easy flat of his c/r, as played, easy call. why did you 3bet flop? to see where you are at?

He knows that you cannot have the nuts, but QQ/KK is in his range. If he thinks he can make you lay down KQ a good portion of the time, and maybe even get you to fold 22, judging by your description of the opponent it is in my opinion not at all implausible that he can have some bluff/semibluff combos in his range.

Call. Only folding if he somehow exposes his cards and they are KK/QQ.

Is this John the lawyer who usually plays 10/25 at Foxwoods? If so I would look for a softer game.

Is flop rainbow? If not that may add a hand or two to his range that could be monster draws where you are ahead or at least flipping. Your hand is pretty face up here as specifically 22 (or maybe QQ if you ever just call IP vs whale).

Tough spot where you hate to fold bottom set. I too am wondering why you back raised 4! if you weren't sure how you would respond to a shove. But if this is the John the Lawyer I know, he is not spazzing with AA ever here...his range is KQ, QQ, KK on monotone flop and add JTs, AJs, ATs if flop has two of one suit and that is basically all.

9 combos of KQ and 6 combined of KK/QQ but range is not 50/50 here...probably more like 75% set/25% 2p. Geez really gross spot versus this player....I am not sure what to do.

Spazzing with AA may not be an option. Could he be turning AA into a bluff? If he's a great player it's not out of the question.

A good player shoves AJs, ATs here? Huh?

Not folding.

If he thinks you are scared $ and may fold bottom set, then yes. Those hands have good equity if called and if you fold even 10-15% of the time, then that is a massive + result.

Not sure if serious unless youre talking about a combo draw.

Correct...I did stip if board had two of a suit.

Fold.

I really don't think turning AA into a bluff here is realistic at all. No knock against johns skill, and yes he is the infamous john the lawyer from Foxwoods. I think raising the donk open looks significantly weaker then smooth calling and back raising his squeeze. I don't think either one of us we're worried about the whale but when he 3b pre, squeezes us on the flop and then jams over my backraise im 100% sure he's never bluffing and he's close to 100% sure I'm calling. He honestly can't think he has a shred of fold equity after I put 100bb in on the flop

Very interesting hand. I kind of think you're right.

It sounds like he doesn't know you very well, so while he could put you on a set of 2s with some chance of KQ (which you might not play this fast), it's pretty ambitious to think you (a more or less random reg from lower limits) are folding them.

I mean, come on. We are talking about deliberately bluffing someone off bottom set when it is the 3rd nuts and they are getting good odds to call.


Also, if he doesn't know you, can he really know you are NEVER trapping with KK or QQ preflop?

Maybe you do this to get more value from whale post flop and/or in hopes of getting squeezed.

Meanwhile, wouldn't you try to isolate and get value from the whale with KQ quite often?

I can't say I'd fold 22 here. I've made this fold exactly once that I can remember. But I don't think it can be a bad fold.

KQ fold.

Could you almost make an argument for folding QQ? If he usually has 22 beat here, what changes? Now he beats 22 and never has QQ, so...

If you’re calling with 22 then you should be calling with KQ DUCY.

Raise to 1k is bad

Your hand looks exactly like 22.




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KQ is more of a call than 22 actually as he can never have 22 and there’s only 1 combo of KK/QQ left.

Yep


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Gross spot, as played its kind of interesting as hero really should have close to no calling range unless he's wanting to hero with KQ. As played we have essentially a face up hand and should fold considering it'd be pretty crazy for the villain to try and bluff presumably an unknown off of bottom set.