1/2 Saturday afternoon. Table has been straddling a TON, but I'm the only one adjusting aggression and raise sizes. Lots of limping and Straddlers are checking option a ridic amount of the time.

Hero (~600, covers all) - Been typically taggish, altho I'd guess my image is a bit "aggro" given my large PF raises on half of the hands that are getting straddled.

V ($157) - Young 20's, seems to be a regular. Besides not topping off, hasn't done anything that seemed "bad". Not playing many hands at all, but could be card dead, as it's only been a couple hours.

Hero in SB. V in CO.
Straddle pot. 2 limps to V who raises to $16. Folds to Hero.
Hero has AQo and considers all 3 options.

If you advocate a call or raise, please also list follow-up action with likely response from V.

Definitely not calling. 2 limps means this is likely to go multiway if we call. Multiway, OOP pot with AQo? No thanks.

I'd probably just fold here. You've raised half of the straddled pots, so it's tough to imagine V folding very often if he has noticed that. You figure if he is as tight as it seems he isn't opening anything worse than AQ (maybe AJs?) and anything better than AQ is not going anywhere.

It would also suck if he 4-bet jammed considering his stack size and how difficult it would be to fold at that point.

Additionally, there are 2 players who haven't acted and the 2 limps could potentially be l/rring (you'd know better than me if that is the case. It just seems like an adjustment that could happen if some guy is raising half the straddles)

And that leaves folding AQo from the SB when we face a CO raise. Weird but let's do it.

Fold pre. I HATE call raises with even AQs against tight players. Too much RIO and too little IO

Fold, oop.

Nobody likes 3betting here to $50?

3b/f? 3b/c?

Is this V 4bet-shoving a range that includes enough/any hands with poor equity against AQ?

Doubtful. If V 4-bets, AQ is in sad shape and even with very good odds, it'd likely be a 3b/f.

If you think a 3b/f works enough of the time, then you should be 3betting here very wide. OOP the cards don't matter. If you were otb, sometimes I say don't "waste" AQ here if V will fold or 4bet shove and just play a hand in position. But from the blinds, there are big pp's I'm 3betting and hoping to get shoved on, if I only get called, I shove almost any flop. And there is everything but big pp's I'd 3bet as a steal attempt.

Depends on my read of villain. If nit, then fold. If not, raise to $50. Fold to a shove and shove pretty much every flop if he flats.

he's too short in stack size and too tight opening to 3b imo. not sure if I like flatting or not but you are going to get pretty insane odds and everyone loves checking to the OR, gonna be pretty hard for anyone to bluff you off any equity post flop

don't mind folding OOP at all if table is straddling

the other side of the coin is that you've set it up for yourself to be much lighter than AQo so it's possible this could be a 3bet/call, but I tend to think he knows you are on the SB vs his short stack and isn't playing lighter

Probably calling. I hate raise folding to a smallish stack and I think your hand is much to string to fold. If you are at all confident in your game you can call and play a premium oop.

I would opt for the 3b/f line. I think we can all agree that he doesn't have a light 4b range, so if he did 4b back, we can safely fold. Calling here is lol bad and I think OP has the best hand a decent % of the time. With all the dead money from the limps + the CO raise (may be lighter than we think), I don't think 3betting for value in this spot can be that bad.

These are different things. If you're 3betting and folding to a 4bet, then the cards don't matter. Do it with 23o.

Are you raising as a bluff or for value?

Cards do matter when someone flats.

fold or 3bet/call off

your committing yourslef based on his stack size if you 3bet

fold

Its a fold. If he where deeper or shallower, I think you could 3bet/gii (shallow)/ 3 bet fold (would like him 200bb deep).

With 77 bb I think this easy fold.

3bet call off is foolish as is assuming your committed. It's approaching that point but not there. At best you are 3:1 dog and you don't have odds to call that. If he flats that's a much different story. Calling OOP multiway is ugly. Fold if you don't want the variance.

3bet/fold>fold>3bet/call>call>lying about blind shoving.


Note: I can easily be swayed into just folding if the read is different.

If we 3b, what are we 3b'ing to?
How does it change if you advocate a 3b/c vs. 3b/f?

you could make it like 55 but you're kinda hoping he was opening wide from the CO and he dumps his hand. you would have to fold if he popped you and you only like a call if the flop comes down nice and you can just get it in.

If you 3 bet pre to 50, you'll be getting exactly 2-1 from the pot. Against a range of AA-JJ, AK-AQ you are a 2-1 dog.

ProPokerTools Hold'em Simulation

801,358,272 trials (Exhaustive)

Hand	Pot equity	Wins	Ties
AxQy	33.07%	169,669,740	190,606,620
AA-JJ, AK-AQ	66.93%	441,081,912	190,606,620

If the game was good enough I'd take a 0 EV spot and call it off, just to try to get a stack fast.

He's almost certainly opening wider than this, and if he flats most of the rest of his opening range (common in LLSNL), you can comfortably stack off on almost all A and Q high flops. You'll probably also be able to win sometimes with a c bet.

If you 3 bet to 50 and he flats the SPR on the flop will be 1. Villain doesn't have much positional advantage now because the SPR is too low. You're either putting him in on the flop or giving up.

A 3 bet to 50 sounds very good, imo. It negates most of our positional disadvantage in the hand. And it's a 3 for thin value + dead money from the limps and open.

What if the other limpers come along for the 3 bet (not likely it would happen but what if)? Should Hero automatically be cbetting whether or not an A or Q peels off?

This +1

Low dry flops if two players take the flop would be good candidates. Shove would be pure value almost every time we flop a pair.

This situation happened to me just last night. I 3 bet light OOP to iso an idiot with a sizing tell. He called, but then a bigger idiot behind him called. The plan has to change then. You need a much better flop to stick the rest in. It's still profitable, but a lot more variance.