A hand I played recently got me thinking about the best way to play hands such as ace king and ace queen when out of position in 3 bet pots.

In the hand in question the hero was playing £750 and the villain was playing £300 in a live £1/2 9 max game.

I 3 bet ace queen off to £35 out of the small blind to a £10 cut off raise. Fired a £50 cbet on a 9s 5x 2x board. Fired £75 on a 6s turn. Then check folded the 5s river when he moves in for his remaining £140.

Later when asked about the hand the villain claimed to have KQ of spades for a rivered flush. But the result of the hand was not really of interest. As I am more interested in other peoples opinions on standard lines to take when playing ace king/ ace queen OOP in 3 bet pots when you miss the flop.

The cbet, bet, check fold line that I took is this line that I am generally inclined to take. My thinking for betting the turn in question without any information on the villain (as he had only sat down about 3 hands before this one) is that by firing the turn it is quite hard for him to continue given that I am repping a big pocket pair and that without holding a big pair themself they are likely to give up, as an all in river bet is likely to follow given the strength I've shown in the hand so far and his remaining stack size. The 5s on the river however led me to believe that he may be holding an over pair to the board and that he was putting me on Ace king/ queen so that it was unlikely that I would get a fold.

However this is quite an aggressive line to take and commits a lot of chips into pots with just ace high.

From reviewing some of my online 6 max nl holdem manager stats my flop cbet % is just over 80%. Which according to their optimal ranges is a bit high leading me to believe that I could consider check calling hands such as these sometimes on flops oop when missing the flop. As opposed to pretty much always barelling??

Or perhaps cbetting then check calling/ check folding more turns would be a better strategy?? Although this line seems pretty weak to me??

Answers on a postcard please

TBH, floating flops has arrived at LLSNL. To get folds, you need to second barrel, based on the flop texture and ranges. If they raise a stright your made, they probably have it if they have a lot behind.

whats your purpose for the three bet. to win it there. then bet more if they are calling.

if its to get early money in the pot oop then enjoy.

The purpose of this 3 bet is to either win the hand there, to get the pot heads up if the villain does then call (as the big blind may also call had I just called) and to take the initiative in future streets of betting.

I suppose flatting out of the blinds with a hand like this has merit though as it certainly becomes more straightforward to play (fit or fold), and certainly minimises losses. But am not sure it's optimal, given that you only really have one way of winning the pot that way- making top pair, and for that reason should probably not be the default play.

not saying it is the right way but you can certainly win without top pair. as your check raises into the smaller pot become more powerful and bad flops look like they hit your hand and you can play it that way at times. plus the opponent has not clue to put you on a hand so must play confused.

3 betting AQ OOP is pretty spewy against villains who won't fold a TPGK or a small overpair (say TT) on that board. 3 betting and double barreling a low board like this pretty much exclusively represents an overpair and makes your hand very transparent to better players and often fish will say "I put you on AK" (And they would basically be right!)

He can play perfectly against you IP and you have very little equity after you miss the turn. This is a call, then possibly a double barrel. You would be in the same position, but the pot would be much smaller.

Situations like this I consider to be somewhat villain dependent -- 3-betting in general fits that profile, although it's becoming more commonplace in lower stakes.

Nonetheless, when OOP, and particularly in the blinds, a hand such as AQo has merit for both 3-betting and flatting. Depending on the villain's tendencies (opening range + 4-betting range) you have to weigh which will be more beneficial. Flatting tends to keep in weaker queens and aces if they're opening particularly wide, and gives better deception. This thinking probably fits a bit better to a 6-max game, however.

To be honest in a 9-handed game ranges are generally a bit tighter so I don't see many situations where 3-betting w/ AQo will be particularly profitable. Villains don't usually call 3-bets too lightly, even in position, because 3-betting ranges in the first place tend to be so narrow in 9 and 10-handed games.

As played, I likely bet flop, c/f turn. No reason to get too ambitious here, and despite so-called results given from villain, it's typical to see many 1/2 players call down with an overpair here.

IMO, this thread is relatively arbitrary. You can't generalize how to play these hands. There will be times where bluffing is correct, there will be times when c/folding the flop/turn is correct, and there are times (like the example in the OP) where you are actually value-betting ace high. You can't make a rulebook that applies to every situation; you have to get reads on villains, improve your ability to read board textures, and utilize your stack size to maximize fold equity.

Obviously, each of those aforementioned variables change on a hand to hand basis.