2-3 NL 100-300 buy in, hero approx 370 behind 7 handed 3 limps to hero in BB AcAh squeezes to 21, spewy & loose aggressive man in 50s around 500 back in UTG+2 calls (I noticed he had opened to 15 in a 3 way pot and cbet 75 on an all low cardboard), button rec ~130 back calls, SB limp folds; 3-way flop KcQd5c, Hero cbets 36, loose aggressive raises to 100, hero??
The real question here is.. when hero has the Ac, can hero OOP ever flat call trap to an aggressive opponent

Note: The more I played with/against this opponent throughout the night, he was deemed to always be aggressive over betting flops with air etc etc.

A quick note on pre-flop, when OOP facing limps our raise sizing should be basically the same as if we were 3Bing a min-open and calls. As such a sizing of around 12-15BB is ideal. I went into the reasoning behind this in this post: https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/s...53&postcount=9.

As for the flop, when we're OOP with multiple players to act behind us, unless we have a strong read that the players are very passive and require us to do the betting for them, we should play our entire range as a check, with us check-raising our value hands and our bluffs.

The reason for this is because we have multiple players behind, we're quite likely to face a bet, and as such we will get more money into the pot more often with our value hands by check-raising rather than leading into the field. This also prevents players in between from feeling squeezed and folding out marginal hands that they may stab with. Additionally, given that we have the read that our main V is very aggressive, going for a flop check-raise is even better since he will be betting very often when checked to.

As played, the flop sizing is fine; theoretically it should be <1/3 pot multi-way because the burden of defense is shared by multiple players, but when live players will call way too wide, sizing up is a great exploit for value.

When we get raised (I'm assuming the BU folded), given that we have a read that this V is very aggressive and spewy, we can just call and let him blast off on later streets. Our hand is ideal for doing this too, since there is no real turn card which kills our hand against any component of his range. If we had AA without a club I might be more inclined to shove, since now a club turn is a bit worse for us, and V could have the NFD, which will call a shove and be behind.

For my typical squeezing range, I deemed it to be 5x +1BB for every limper, so I definitely see why you go larger with strength and being OOP. Do you think I can make it 8x + 1BB for every limper? Also when I get limped to with hands like 45, 78, 89, 910 suited, etc. I still squeeze to deny random overlapping occasionally (probably 50/50 between checking and squeezing), should I be checking these 100% of the time?

And my reasoning for the above is I’d rather have these playable hands heads up with a wide range with easy visibility, am I thinking wrong?

You can definitely go 8x+1BB per limper. I personally default to 10BB + 1 per additional limper when OOP, and I still get called by very weak hands. In practice you'll notice that after the first few times you use this sizing (and get folds), people will start calling you more often because they become used to that sizing, or other psychological factors.


Regarding 3B squeezing with suited connectors, there are two main reasons we add them into our squeeze range:

1. To win the pot immediately, since our opponents can't continue against us profitably assuming our squeeze range is still value heavy.

2. To ensure that we do sometimes connect with boards that are typically less favourable for the value component of our 3B range.

For point 1 to be true, we can't add too many suited connectors into our squeeze range.
Also certain suited connectors perform far better than others.

T9s is pretty much always a squeeze, whilst 89s and 78s we can pretty safely fold almost every time, as they tend to end up getting coolered with their straights (K9, KQ and AK) and flushes more often, and when they flop a pair it isn't as strong. Additionally, when they flop a straight draw, it's more likely to contain cards which pair our opponent, meaning our semi-bluffs will work less often.

56s and 67s are quite nice as they begin to cooler the straights of A2s, A5s and even Ax, and the hands which cooler our straights (QJ and JT) are less likely to continue against a squeeze. When we flop straight draws with these hands, our opponent is also less likely to connect with the board, giving us more profitable semi-bluffs with straight draws. However we still need to temper our frequencies with these two, somewhere between 15 and 50% is ideal according to simulations, with the sizings and positions influencing our exact frequency.

45s and lower are simply too weak to squeeze due to their pairs almost never being top pair, as well as many of our straightening cards being Ax, which is heavily in our opponents ranges.

Grunch - yes there are flop to flat back and let aggro V do his thing, but I don’t think this is it. A flop where AK misses is that flop. On this one you’re in value town against a V with a value hand. Here I actually flat the raise and then lead like ~1/5 pot OTT. Aggro V should read as a weak / blocker and come over the top. Assuming a call there is in order.

Yup, pre flop "squeeze" sizing much too small. Wanna iso one player ideally, and bigger size from BB will look more like it's an actual squeeze so could induce 3 bet / 5 bet and be highly profitable.

Seems like I can be squeezing slightly larger
Result:
I jammed for about 240 more. Villain tank folds after a minute and shows a King of hearts face up and the other card face down, but also through the screen muttered “if I had a club I would have called”
Why did I?
I was very 50/50 between just flatting and jamming, but decided to jam. I was thinking if he had JT which I don’t block, 2 clubs, KJ, KT, or a worser suited King, I didn’t want to see a bad turn card for me like J/T/9/club where I wouldn’t know where I would be at and I feel like 70/30 of the time, it would have gone check-check on the turn in this scenario given I would be flatting on the flop only my strongest range of AA, AK, QQ and rarely be flatting a draw myself.
New Question:
Is it possible for me to just flat on the flop, and donk lead, shove the turn on a safe card?

Sure if you hate money and like making dumb plays.

Sarcasm aside, don’t do this. You have less than a pot sized bet to go and can charge him right now. A random Kx that isn’t 2 pair has over 27% equity against you and when you go all in for 349, with like 70 in the pot preflop (after rake), he’s getting about 2.1:1 on a call, meaning he needs only around 32.4% equity to call. Given what your range is here, raising a king and folding is an absolute disaster at these stack depths. You want them to spew EV off to you.


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I’d flat and check the turn to check-call.

If V checks turn, I would bet all safe rivers, and probably bet-fold (small size) on club rivers as well.

If V does something crazy like jam turn, then my decision would be player-dependent and depend on any live reads or intuitions I might have.

EDIT: I was assuming V was a good player. If V is a bad rec prone to overplaying and calling down with Kx, then I might jam flop.

EDIT #2: I posted my response before seeing that OP had posted results. If V is folding Kx, then you should have probably flatted flop.