First post, go gentle on me. I really enjoy all the thought and discussion here, lots of helpful information.

Playing 2/3 NL at a local card room.

300 is max buy in, Hero has about $550. Hero's image is solid, TAG. Haven't had to show many hands, took down a couple of decent pots by using my position against OOP raisers.

V1 - Mid 40's, LAG. Tries to bully by throwing big bets around. Will bluff big on multiple streets w air and then fold to a min raise. He won a big multi-way pot a few hands ago w KK vs JJ vs AKd when board had 2 diamonds and his hand help up. I cannot wait to get involved against him in the right spot. He's got about $1400 in front of him.

V2- tight/weak. Doesn't play a lot of hands but calls more than raises when he does. Late 20's. Stack is about $300.

Onto the hand. V1 is in middle position and raises to $12. One late position caller and the V2 in the SB calls. Pot is $39. Hero is in BB and has AA. Hero raises to $65, hoping to get heads up w V1. V1 calls, and V2 calls (I was surprised by V2's call, expected V1 to call). Pot is $190 ($5 rake).

Flop is KJ3. V2 checks, hero shoves, V1 folds, V2 calls.

Turn is 9. River is K.

Tried to cover everything, again go easy on me. New at this.

so you bet 2.5x pot? nothing in your description of villains suggest they will be stacking off with draws or 1 pair for that price. id prefer a bet to set up stacks getting in on turn. bet $125-$150 on flop, shove turn.

Your raise is near the smallest I would make in this spot with 3 more behind. After your call there is $51 in the pot and your raise is now $53, so pot sized. I like to go slightly larger here with 3 behind since if the first guy calls then it opens the door for a 3 to 1 call by the next 2. I want no more than 2.5 to 1 for the 'next' guy to call, so the raise is to $75 plus. The bet needs to be near $90 then, perhaps $88.

I know this sounds like a lot perhaps, but you will be OOP in the hand. I disagree with your shove here also, you still have a bet in there with $485 and a pot of $190. You are only going to get called by better here, maybe AK. This is not the best board with 2 callers in there with you.

If you concede that you weren't going to fold anyway, then perhaps a shove is fine. My guess is that you saw JJ or AK/KK. Tough spot and your intentions were good, but if you want to go after a big stack, then price out or force the hand of the shorter ones when you do it. GL

Flop shove seems bad imo. Why not just a half pot ish bet to set up a turn shove?

I would raise more preflop, although I don't think our raise size is horrendous. Basically, with this raise we will be expecting a HU situation vs V1 where the SPR will be just over 3, so we absolutely must stack off postflop. Our preflop raise size gave V1 implied odds of 11x, which is pretty poor odds, but I typically like giving poorer (especially when I know I'm going to stack off postflop every single time).

With aggro bluff monkeys in the hand in pots where we are committed (such as this spot), I sometimes just check to let them do their thing. However, I don't think that is going to work in this case because (a) this board should smash us and (b) V1 also has V2 to worry about, so I just don't think V1 is going to get out-of-line here.

So with the pot $190 and stack against V1 being $485, I'd probably just go like 3/4 PSB to setup a turn shove. And I'm never folding.

GcluelessNLnoobG

3 bet preflop IMO is fine but I'm betting around 1/2 pot on flop and re-evaluating from there. You're overplaying your hand and the absolute "ONLY" hand that might give you action that you're beating here is AK. Losing a lot of value here and appears like you're scared of getting outdrawn....

I'm guessing by re-evaluating you're meaning the best way to get remaining stacks in, right (i.e. a turn check might allow spazzy Villain to commit)? Cuz we're obviously never folding the turn with just a PSB left and an overpair...

Correct....action on turn depends on how villains respond to flop bet...but general rule of thumb is yes I'm getting my money in there on the turn if only one villain calls me down.

Ok, fine; I just thought you were perhaps considering folding at some point (as soon as we see this flop with this SPR, folding is out of the question).

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to comment and give advice. Appreciate it and I'm definitely open to the constructive criticism.

As I said, expected V1 to come along preflop but was surprised by V2. Also, I understand why bet preflop should have been larger and bet on the flop should have been smaller.

As far as results, V1 folded and V2 called. I did not put V2 on KK becuase I thought he would have raised to limit the field and/or made a move preflop once there was already $150 in there. I felt like AK or JJ were the most likely hands once he called and I thought the K on the river won the hand for AK but he actually turned over 33.

Thanks again for the advice.

sucks you got coolered

bet about 1/2 pot then shove turn

:grunch:

I wouldn't be that eager to get into a pot with this guy. He's probably a good bit better than you think.

A raise here is pretty much mandatory. I'm tempted to raise smaller if we think it'll induce a re-raise from V1. But that's hard to predict without knowing more about him.

I think shoving is a mistake here. You're basically running everything that V1 might have out of the hand, except for the hands that have you crushed. A better bet would be something like $120ish. Give V1 the hope that he can bet you off the hand by raising, and leave yourself the flexibility to shove over V2 if he wakes up with a c/r. Although I'm not convinced that we beat anything in V2's c/ship range. But having the option can sometimes run V1 out of the pot to get you an overlay, or get him in behind for a side pot.

So yea, don't like the shove. I assume that V2 showed down something like AK and rivered you.

V2 had 33. Thanks for the advice.

Raise pre is fine. If anything I'd prefer to 3bet to $50 to $55 pre. Stacks are shallow enough that you can get stacks in easily by turn plus they don't have odds to call. I WANT them all to call my 3bet to $55 pre. I'd bet 1/2 pot on flop.

Preflop is fine IMO. Can make an argument for a little more, but pretty much no difference. Is the flop rainbow, 2 suits, or suited? I generally like a 3/4 PSB here then get it in on the turn. Congrats on the first post😁

After the hand, I wondered if I left the door open for the SB (V2) to sneak in by not raising enough preflop, and that's why I posted the hand for criticism. AP, he put in more than 1/5 of his stack preflop but after my 3 bet and V1 calling, there was $154 in the pot and it was $53 more for him to call and he was closing the action. He knew I represented a big hand and also V1 was already in the pot and V1 was a bit of a maniac so if he did hit his set, he was likely to get paid off by at least one of us.

Obviously, losing always sucks but my main concern when thinking afterwards was did I bet enough preflop to make his call a mistake?

V2 is being asked to call $53 in order to win the $154 in the pot plus the remaining $288 in his stack, so $53 to win about $442 (perhaps a little more if he expects to win a bet or two off the player he doesn't stack). So getting about 8.3:1 to setmine, which is way too thin. V2 made a mistake, imo.

GcluelessNLnoobG

A bit. He's also got the chance to stack *two* players, so 53:730 or 13.7:1 sometimes. That's still thin but it's getting better. Somewhat -EV either way though.