So my first thought was to shove, then reconsidered and opted to flat. Turn was an offsuit 7 and he shoved. I folded and felt like a fish. I’ve been going over it though and I really don’t like any option.

Let’s be optimistic and say his donking range has a decent amount of bluffs and includes some marginal jacks. Let’s say it’s:QJo, KJo, J9o, J8s, 9T, 56-89hh, 55, and A2-A5hh.

Against that range I have 42% on be flop and 25% on the turn.

Shoving with at best 42% equity and with no fold equity seems unappealing but wouldn’t be terrible with the dead money.

Idk, I hate short stacked poker.

Against good regs I’m dumping AJo, and I use a randomization strategy if I 3 bet or flat AQ, but it leads to more flats than 3 bets. I’m more likely to 3 bet AQs because I want clear semi-bluffing opportunities that will retain their equity against villain’s call or betting range. It also depends what I think about the button. I’ve definitely folded AQo out of the blinds but I need a reason.

A lot is going to depend on table dynamics too. It impacts how light people are opening and how post flop will play.

Yea...I think your right. As I said, shoving was my first thought but I second guessed myself and flatted, then folded a pretty brick turn, which did in fact seem awful.

shove the KQ. makes sure we will always realize all of our equity and pushes any FE that we may have (you never truly have 0 FE in these spots)

Yeah in retrospect, for so few blinds, shove is best play.

+1

GimoG

One leak I've noticed in my game is folding too easily to C-bet aggression, especially from LAGs. One example below:

1/3, $800 effective
QJ in BB
TAG villain in CO raises to 20, me and 2 others call

Flop [$81]: 983
Checks to villain who bets $75

Now this board is unlikely to have hit much of PFR's range, so there's a good likelihood he's just C-betting with 2 overcards. I tend to fold in these spots, which IMO is way too nitty and scared. We have good equity with 2 overs, a gutshot, and backdoor flush draw.

My question is, what's the best way to defend this? Doing some digging has led me to 2 main options: check-raising vs. floating. How do I decide which move is better in what situations?

Checkraise might work, but it's pretty dangerous. The bet is too big for an OOP float, especially with two players behind you. You kind of have to just fold here.

If you want to not meekly check and fold, the time for that was before you checked. You can lead this flop instead. You should typically be leading stuff like sets and top two here (because the chance of it checking around is too high and because your relative position is such that if you get in a checkraise you'll blast the other two players out of the hand). You can lead stuff like this to balance your leading range.

Leading here would have been fine 4 ways. After you check, c/f is fine against this sizing. If we were in position I would float more normal sizes. OOP I would c/r against the standard 1/2 PSB.

I'd likely fold preflop. We'll be OOP to everyone, first to act after the preflop raiser (terrible relative position), and not guaranteed to go multiway. Unless some of the limpers who are likely to call are huge fish, is this really a profitable spot?

I'd fold on the flop too, imo. Raiser is betting into 3 opponents; we really think this is overs? Especially if there are fish in the hand (the only reason we should be calling preflop) then this is mostly always just for value. And if it is just overs, our overs are often dominated. And on top of the we're going to be able to eek out value OOP?

GneedareallygoodreasontoplayhandsOOP,imoG

"All day" to the bolded. Should they be potting 2 overs in this spot is a separate question.

Fold pre has plenty of merit. However, no way should we be folding this flop unless we're admitting the call pre was bad. This is a very good flop for our hand. We need to be thinking about x/jamming the turn. idk. I like folding pre in the BB to a 7x open, especially if potting the flop is standard for Villain. might be too nitty.

Sailboats, if someone posted an AK hand that went 4ways to the flop (assuming with a fish or two in the callers) and then bet (let alone PSB) this flop, I'm pretty sure most respondents would say "spew" (and I would agree with that assessment), no? Villain is described as a TAG, not a spewtard.

GcluelesshandreadingnoobG

CO has a hand that he ain't folding to a x/r. his flop sizing into 3 players screams overpair. I could get behind a x/r if the flop sizing was smaller as we have two overs, a gutter and a BDFD, especially if the BTN and SB fold.

assuming we close the action, I'd consider peeling as a lot of cards help our hand and we are sufficiently deep. if one of the other two players call flop, I fold.

Agree with Deathcab. Being deep stacked and pretty much knowing exactly what opponent have (big overpair) is often a very profitable situation to be in. When opponents choose sizings both pre and on flop that narrows their range considerably by its own (because they simply cant have a wider range when you go with such big sizings, they basically turn their hand faceup to anyone paying attention), its a powerful tool and something that we really can use to destroy our opponents.

Sure i mean were out of position, thats what really sucks about this hand- because being deepstacked and knowing our opponents cards almost precisely is one of the most +EV spots to be in cause we will be able to play postflop close to flawless.

I see people with redic high c-bet % all the time. For many Villains, this bet is with most/all of their range which includes 2 overs quite frequently. If there is a sizing tell we can take a note. If we have a read other than "TAG" that would help. Whether or not this cbet is spew when Villain is sitting on AQo is beside the point. Villain has almost 50 combos of 2 overs that include a bdfd and/or a straight draw if he's opening all broadway hands. Then we've got all the other reasonable semi-bluff hands that don't include 2 overs.

boats, v may be over cbetting this spot like many in LLSNL. but IME he's probably not going with this large sizing.

I agree that the sizing can be a tell here. I'm probably focussing too much on the decent number of villains I face who love to bigX pre with a tightish range and pot the flop with nearly all of it.

lol that's awesome, makes for some big swongs but that's a juicy game if that happens regularly

Should've expanded on this in the OP. V has tight PFR range but has been C-betting literally 100% of flops, with sizing similar to this. That's why my inclincation was that he just had 2 overs with maybe some backdoor equity (although I don't think he's thinking about backdoors).

It's common for regs at my poker room to just auto C-bet every PFR without thinking about board texture, # players, etc.

Given this info, would it be better to X/R here or float and bet all turns that improve our equity? Was leaning torwards X/R as we're OOP and would like to end the hand ASAP

if he's potting his entire range, a x/r is sexy if we are closing the action

I think it's thread-worthy frankly. What are the other positions and profiles? Hero image? From what you've written so far, I mostly like a fold pre. If you reverse float this flop, do you have any idea if he'll double barrel Ace high? etc.

100%. He pots it 4 ways and we have a gut shot and overs that may get us into trouble.

This is an easy fold

Does he always size it this way pre? Were there two limpers? That preflop and flop sizing screams overpair. That sizing in particular makes me think TT or JJ.

I wouldn’t call this a case of overfolding to cbet aggression given sizing and that you are OOP. Flatting and hoping he shuts down isn’t a good option so that leaves check raising with a gutter into an uncapped range multiway. I would want some evidence he’s over cbetting before doing that.

Whether or not people should be potting overcards here isn’t really the question, they absolutely will, although I do think this is weighted toward made hands.

I’m typically folding pre to that sizing, if you think you have enough of a skill edge, at this stack depth calling pre is fine.

This is a snap fold on the flop.

This is probably game dependent. In my regular game I'd estimate 10-15% of players are cbetting overs here. That's before we look at the sizing. Honestly sizing probably moves it close to 100% this is not overs.