This was a 1/3 game but it was very deep...

Hero has 1300 and change in front of him
Villain has roughly 1200

PF action folds to villain who bets $30.
Fold
Fold
Cut off calls 30
I'm on the button and look down at AK clubs...I raise to 80
Blinds fold
Villain re raises to 280
Cut off folds
Action back on me...what is the play here?

Note: villain seems like a solid player. Had played fairly tight all night and was overloaded with poker accessories (hoodie AND hat, sunglasses, headphones)

there were a lot of tilting threads lately were the general consensus was to nitfold AK pre, but I think this one really is a fold pre.

Positions would be nice, but your "fairly tight" villain just opened for 10x in somewhat early position. I don´t like the 3bet in the first place, and especially for that sizing, what exactly did you try to accomplish? if you do 3bet which I wouldn´t make a normal size instead of what you did here...
As played, you might have induced something with that sizing, but after all, villain 10xed it and 4bet our 3bet for a whole buyin. seems like a fold.

Our sizing is a bit small. I'd raise to $105-140. I get that we have a great hand and want callers, but I'd still rather have this go HU than 3 way.

As played, flat & see a flop in position. I guess the dream scenario is V having a set and us having a straight.

Since we have AK we block AA and KK combos. There's now only 6 of those. If V is 4betting something like JJ+/AK here with some A5s type hands, we have ~45% equity. We also have position.


edit: Just read the comment above. I missed that V opened 10x. I actually flat AK in position to really large raises. If V always opens like this, then I guess follow what I wrote above. Otherwise, I agree with sauhund.

I play in a game like this. $30 is an average raise pre (yes, 1/3). Agree if this is not normal, just flat the first time. If it is normal, 3bet bigger. As played, I probably flat and see a flop, but there is no harm in folding.

Any significance to villains $30 raise? Bigger then what I would expect for 1/3. If $30 is exceptionally big I might flat preflop but if it's typical of this game then 3 betting is better this deep.

Your 3 bet is a little small once the $30 gets a call. $100-$125 looks more likely to get this heads up. Once villain 4 bets folding would be fine but really deep with position and a suited AK I would rather see the flop.

is 10x open normal? if it is, even though we are 400bb deep, we are deceptively not as deep if pots are getting this bloated.

as played i would sigh fold. we're just not that deep. we are going into the flop with ~2:1 spr....

also if we 3b we gotta go bigger. 2.5 is way too small given that a player flatted in between... i would go $130 or so.

i feel results oriented saying this but flatting villain's EP raise this deep in position might be better.

Other than clicking buttons, what are the reasons for 3betting when we have the button? One reason may be that we are thinking he is raising light and will fold to a 3bet. Except our read is that he's playing tight. So he's probably not folding unless we've been pretty nitty ourselves. So we're bloating potentially a mw pot where we're not going to be comfortable playing for stacks unless he hit tp and everyone starts checking.

As played, I'd fold and kick myself for essentially turn my good hand into a bluff.

If you 3b, make it more. I'd go $120, offering V about 2:1 on the call and discouraging the caller from tagging along.

For purposes of discussion, I'm assuming the 10x UTG raise doesn't mean all that much and V has a range for his original raise that looks something like
[TT+, AJs+, AQ+, KQ]

I can see flatting pre and playing a pot in position, but I'm not sure I'd go all the way to saying we should never 3b AKs here. It's nice to have initiative as well as position, given that we don't know whether we have a card or skill advantage.

I think either 3b or flatting is reasonable. I'd be more inclined to flat against someone that makes betting errors and raise against someone that makes calling errors.

We would like to have had a better handle on his 4b range, but it's not like that's easy to get in a typical LLSNL game.

The 3b/4b/5b game can be tricky, but I don't think that means we shouldn't jump in at least sometimes.

Once V 4b, we need to evaluate his range. Given how much there is behind, I think he's probably very tight. You really don't want to find yourself facing a stack decision for 400bb with QQ. So I'm thinking it's something like KK+, and some AK combos (maybe only suited). Maybe he has QQ, but I'm not expecting AQs or JJ down.

I'm not especially kicking myself here. Assuming V is tight, we managed to lose only $80 with AKs vs. a really strong opening range. We were probably on average losing at least that if we flat against that range IMO.

Without reads villain's 10x raise is pretty strong and is more weighted towards AQ+ or TT+ so I might just nit-flat and take a flop in position, but if we 3B it has to be more ($125 approx.)

As played after he 4bets he likely has KK/AA and at the absolute worst QQ/AK as well so I fold.