Hand came up last night about an hour into the session. I had a decent session but am generally unhappy with a lot of my decision making. I thought this might be a decent PAHWM.

Villain (sb $300): young asian kid. I've seen him raise a few times in position, limps occassionally. When he does raise pre out of position, I generally expect him to show up with a strong hand. Has been stacked once when he wasn't able to lay down KK on an A high board. I've seen him try and steal a few pots post flop when he had no chance of taking it down otherwise.

Villain 2 (utg+1 $150): Older Asian gentleman. limps into almost every pot will will l/f 90% of the time. His limping range is probably any two suited +. Is fit or fold post.

Hero: (bb covers): 30s white guy. As I mentioned above, i'd been sitting for an hour or so and it's been slow going. I raised my first hand at the table when i picked up QQ, but other than that i haven't played a whole lot. If i'm entering a pot, it's been for a raise. V saw me win a large pot last orbit by 3 betting AQs out of the small blind.

OTH:

V2 calls, B calls, V1 Raises to $12. Hero looks down at AQ

Hero?

if you know he's strong when he raises OOP, I don't mind folding. Otherwise 3bet to 36 I don't like flatting at all.

Against someone with no fold button, IP, i'm going to take a flop for $10 more.
If we thought he was better post flop, I would likely just fold.

when you say V has a strong range here you need to give us an estimate of it because that could mean a lot of things.

Either way folding is criminal. I like a flat with position on V1 and hope V2 comes along too.

Probably call and see the flop, you have position on the raiser and stacks are reasonably deep. If his raising range is strong enough I might just go ahead and fold preflop.

3 bet is probably a mistake. If his range is so strong that you are bluffing then his raising range is so tight he will have too many hands he can reraise. If his range is wide enough that a 3 bet isn't a bluff then your 3 bet will fold out his worse hands and limit his range to the hands that are likely to beat you.

I would say it's probably KJo+ in this scenario.

I like a small 3! preflop. You don't want two callers behind you. Narrow his range and play HU in position. I make it $25-30.

I thought strong would mean AK, AQs, and JJ+

this is reasonable enough to 3bet pre.

Never flatting pre.

Not going to fold. Our hand is easy to play, villains are bad. Call and see a flop.

Much wider then I would have assumed when you said his range is tight out of the SB. With a range that wide 3 betting is reasonable and I'm not folding. Something like raise 1/4 of the time and call 3/4. With V2 almost always folding behind I prefer flatting and taking our positional edge rather then building a big pot.

Hero Calls $12, V2 Calls $12.

Pot:$35
Flop: A 3 Q

V1 Checks, Hero?

Bet $20. You block a lot but your hand isn't so strong that you want to risk free cards. This is a straight forward your hand is good enough to bet and not good enough to trap with situation so far.

One important but not obvious reason to bet is V1's range. The hands that V1 raises with preflop but doesn't c-bet on this flop include a lot of pairs and gut shot straight draws that you don't want to give free cards to.

Bet bet bet

30

Why?

Hero checks, V2 bets 12, V1 raises to 36, Hero?

call

Mubsy bro, chill.

This is AK type of hands way too often by some idiot or AQ. It's rare they got QQ or AA. That's 1 friggin combos compared to how many others.

And the occasional semi-bluff.

Flat and print money.

Not betting flop has presented a pretty amazing opportunity to have stacks in on most turns, if not sooner. Raise given your line, do not call.

I thought hero bet 12, disregard that...

I'm still flatting otf. The initial raiser from the sb c/r'd over two other players, I don't think this is a semi bluff at all. He would have lead out most likely.

I was debating whether to raise the sizing is kind of lame.

We should be leading flop though.

Does not matter he if he has no absolute bluffs or in your eyes semi-bluffs, because he only has 2 combos we lose to and the rest we chop or are way ahead.

The reason why raising vs flatting is an argument is can we get more value from V2 with his drawing range as well as V1s semi-bluff range.

Flatting only if V1 never has semi-bluffs and V2 always folds his draws. And if V1 will always continue firing turns.

Then we can c/r the turn.

So without any information this should be a snap re-raise.

I like the initial check, we likely have V1 locked up and he's going to c/f a lot esp 3 way, so we can see if V2 does anything or otherwise try win a bet OTT as a flop bet prob gets 2 folds a lot here.

After it goes bet/raise, I'd call.

I would just call the flop raise and allow the Asian kid to barrel the turn w/ AK and hands like KJdd, JTdd. If we 4bet him on the flop it is too easy for him to get away from hands we are beating. If he checks turn, we can probably stack him with two small half pot bets on turn and river or just GII on the turn if V2 calls the flop 3bet.

Hero calls, V2 folds
Pot: $111
Board: A 3 Q 8

V1 checks, hero?