Hi,

This is a hand I played on a 2/2 table, for which I would like some basic strategy advise.

I have AK UTG+2 and open to 12 (standard at that table). MP calls, everyone else folds. We both have around 400. I consider MP to be the best and most well-rounded player at the table. He is also a part-time pro.

Flop is Q77. What should I do now, given that I certainly want to be balanced against this guy? I can't really decide what to do: check-call, bet-fold and bet-call all seem reasonable to me.

I bet 12 and he folded.

In no particular order:

1. Don't post results. It can skew the advice you get. Stop the hand at the decision point.
2. Conventional wisdom is to avoid playing pots against good players, ESPECIALLY out of position (any chance you could have gotten a seat change so that you don't have the best player at the table to your immediate left?). In your case you COULDN'T avoid it - raising AKs from UTG+2 is clearly the correct play and you were just unlucky that the best player was your only caller.
3. If you assume that a good player is only going to build a huge pot with a huge hand you will be right far more often than you're wrong.
4. With stacks 200bb deep, a good player will correctly call with a VERY wide range of hands, most of which will be very difficult, even for a good player, to continue with, so I think b/f the flop is the correct play, then check the turn. If the good player bets a significant amount on the turn I think you just have to say "well played" and and fold - most 1/2 players are not capable of that.

HTH.

basic strategic advice for being balanced: you need to have the right amount of bluffs to balance out your value hands.

Do you only want to be balanced against this specific villain?

Thanks for the reply. Which hands would you check-fold and check-call in this situation? And what would you do with a hand like 88?

There were certain players at this table for which I certainly don't want to be balanced in certain spots. For example: there was this player that 3-bet only once in 5 hours and showed aces. I don't want to have a balanced 4-bet range against this guy. However, against the best player at the table, I want to have a "GTO" strategy to fall back on.

Yes, in theory, if someone only has aces in their 3betting range, we would only want to have aces in our 4 betting range, because we would ALWAYS get 5bet. But we are making drastic assumptions here.

However it seems more like you think you think your opponents are incapable of making adjustments, and that will cost you more EV than anything.

GTO isn't some magic switch you turn on when it's needed. It's a way of life.