1/3, 7 handed

UTG $1000
UTG+1
MP
CO
BTN $450 (Villain)
SB $700 (Hero) AQ
BB $700

UTG straddles to $6, BTN raises to $20, Hero/SB calls $20, BB calls $20, UTG calls $20

Flop ($80): A95
Checks to BTN who bets $65, Hero raises to $175, folds to BTN who calls.

Turn ($430): 3
Hero shoves for $255

In the one hour since Hero sat down, villain has raised preflop a handful of times to $15 and folded to 3-bets. Overall seems pretty tight.

This hand was played by a friend. He said that he could represent 55/99/A9/A5 and that villain should be laying down AK.
Interested in your opinions on all streets.

Your friend was SB facing a ~7x raise and called with two behind. A9 is def not in that range A5 either

There's $430 in the pot. The opponent would to call $255 to win $940. He only has to be right 25% of the time to win. AK is hard to law down there. There's no made straights or flushes. Someone hits trips there good on them. There's AQ and AJ in that range and he could be bluffing which it sounds like he was.

Hero's play looks out of place on the flop. A9 and A5 are unlikely calls preflop. 99 and 55 would be flatting to get people to come along on such a dry flop. This is also odd play in that hero is turning a good hand into a bluff.

Getting a fold from AK in this line enough for it to be profitable is the hard part. Hero bluff raised flop and shove turn. This means hero is risking hero's entire stack to win less then hero's stack. So this has to work a lot to be +EV.

Hero probably gets a lot of folds to the flop check/raise here because villain likely has a lot of hands worse then AX that really have to fold to a raise. After villain calls the flop continuing with the bluff is a very hard judgement call.

The read on villain is what makes this extra bad. For the described villain to call our flop raise he had to know this might have been coming and he called anyway. I would not expect this to work much. I think it is more likely that we get called by AJ than that we fold out AK.

so let me get this straight, your friend wants to fold out AK? so he raised the flop for what reason exactly?

see where he´s at? fold out AJ?

I see nothing wrong with your flop or turn bets. But I think you definitely missed a 4-bet pre-flop. The button can raise with a very wide range and has incentive to try and steal the straddle and fold out the blinds to at least get it heads up if UTG decides to defend. You also do not want to play OOP against 4 players. You needed to 4-bet to fold out the BB and UTG. Your 4-bet should be large enough to try and get the button to fold a high percentage of his range as well. I would have raised to 80 or 100 pre-flop. If you raise to 60 he is sure to call another 40. If the button had called a 4-bet, then I would be more worried about his upper range such as pairs and AK, but the way you played it, he should still have a wide range here including almost all Ax suited and unsuited. These would have bet the flop when it checked to him. Certainly his call of the check-raise suggests he does have a strong ace but not necessarily AK.

It is possible you could have check-raised as a bluff or with a weak ace. The button may have bet with middle pair since it checked around to him. Hero does not always have to have a strong ace to try a check-raise in this situation. Therefore the button does not need a premium ace to call. Likewise, since the SB did not 4-bet pre-flop, the button will likely not put him on AK or AQ. He will likely call with Ax 8-J especially if suited with back door draws. The back door heart draw does come in on the turn. I think the river shove is fine given the button's stack size. He is likely pot committed with all of his previous calling hands.

Your friend is value shoving. Lol @ folding AK here. Probably should consider calling off AJ/AT without a heart


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3b pre vs btn open.

AP I think flat call flop is better. He is never folding AK at this depth.

Turn it looks like your pot size is off. (80+175+175=430) so I don't think it matters much any more, its all going in.

all in all this whole hand is not good.

I just read the flop play, why not just c/c and play small pot from there? c/c until river an c/c that unless scary? is that too nitty?

Way too nitty. AQ has the button's range clobbered. Definitely check raising the flop with plans to get it all in here.

I agree with that, but are you really valueshoving if you obviously have no clue at all why you made the bet?

That’s the point. He’s more likely to get called by worse than fold better. He’s completely mashing buttons.

This entire hand is a train wreck. To a point where if I saw it, I would immediately think the player is a losing one.


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That might be a tad ambitious given flop sizing into a field.

That being said we should have never gotten into this situation and made a 3 bet preflop


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A couple of you mentioned that AJ/AT are probably calls in this spot from BTN's point of view.
However, if the roles were reversed and we were the BTN facing the check raise from SB, would it be a totally different hand instead where we would actually fold?

That is, assume we are BTN in the hand with AJ (or AK)
- When we bet flop and face a check raise, what are we putting villain on?
- Are we calling the raise (and thus calling the turn shove)? Is this basically the same as being check raised all in on the flop?


UTG $1000
UTG+1
MP
CO
BTN $450 (Hero) AJ
SB $700 (Villain) Sat down one hour ago, hasn't played too many hands so far, 3-bet us once, assume we have no particular reads
BB $700

UTG straddles to $6, BTN/Hero raises to $20, SB calls $20, BB calls $20, UTG calls $20

Flop ($80): A95
BTN/Hero who bets $65, SB raises to $175, BTN/Hero calls.

Turn ($430): 3
SB shoves for $255

I mean I’ve already said we likely should be calling. Especially if we’re betting all of our Ax at this sizing on the flop.


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I would fold AJ and call AK

Against a Button open and his stack size, probably a pretty good argument for 3betting to like $80 here to setup a trivial stackoff SPR postflop with TP (I mean, I'm assuming even tightish players are opening their range here). I don't hate a flat due to disliking building huge pots OOP (especially if this guy isn't opening his range when folded to on the Button), but if everyone else is going to come along then it can setup awkward multiway SPRs where commitment-while-offering-great-IO becomes an issue.

SPR is 5ish so it is going to be difficult to fold postflop. I'm cool with the check on this drawless board. I really don't understand the check/raise. I'm actually a little worried that this guy is continuing into the world for large. And if anyone is sandbagging to the raiser then we're just punting into them. Pretty easy check/call and evaluate whether I can make a hero fold later.

Even on the turn things are still fairly drawless so I'd probably check to make sure he pays off his stack with worse on the river. A bet after a check/raise is going to get a tight guy to fold all worse hands and only consider calling with better.

I don't think this hand (TP2K) is a hand we should be turning into a bluff as it targets such a small range. It could definitely work against a tight player, but he has to have (a) that single hand and (b) be able to fold TPTK, which is too much of a parlay, imo.

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