Had a question on how to proceed on flop.

2/5 NL

Effective stacks 1.2 k

Hero: perceived as absolute nit. Only shown down monsters. But I do c bet good boards to take them down. Good players should notice it. 3 bet light twice to squeeze a couple times. Table has been playing very tight so I decided to open wider. And took down a huge pot when I opened btn with a suited connector and stacked off someone.

V: I perceive him as a good player. Tight.

UTG raises to 35$ V calls (UTG+1) HJ calls. Btn (hero) raises to 135$ with Q8ss.

All fold except V.

I decide to 3 bet light here for squeeze and isoing the bad player in UTG. Only V called however.

Flop comes

Qc 8d 3s(345$)

V checks to me.

Hero??

How much do you bet? Or do you check?

This dry flop never hits villain almost ever other than him calling with 88 maybe or AQ(which he usually should have bet.) I want him to continue with marginal hands like 99,jj.

Just want to hear people on why check might be good against this kind of player. Or proper bet size if we should c-bet.

That was a lucky flop. Q8ss is not a hand I'd choose to light squeeze with, but whatever. Definitely betting flop when checked to, especially if you've been c-betting a lot. I go ~$175.

Edit: I think checking here after 3betting looks almost stronger than c-betting.

You are not perceived as a nit.

Bad place for a squeeze. A good player flatted a big UTG open in very EP. His range is very strong here. Even if the other two players aren't so good, just fold.

Now that you've hit bingo against a strong range with a disguised hand, always bet. Board is very dry, so I make it on the small size of my standard c-bet size, which for me would be half-pot.

Why do you want him to continue for free with marginal hands? The next step is he "catches up" and you are effed. He's likely not going to lead into you OTT in a 3! pot unless he hits a set meaning you aren't getting an extra bet out of him anyway.

Bet $200 and be prepared to stack off. Shove pretty much any turn if he calls (except maybe an Ace).

200-225.

Why would you ever check here? You're playing for stacks 200bb deep after flopping disguised top 2. Build the pot, get it in. There is no other line to play.

I agree with Garick this is a terrible spot to squeeze with trash. We have an UTG opener with a tight player flatting UTG+1. And your reason to "isolate the bad UTG opener" is even more of an issue since you will never get him to fold top pair. I would rather isolate an average player because we can get them to fold on certain runouts.

As played, now that you are lost in the hand (another reason why you shouldn't be 3betting this light), why would you want to check the flop? Bet for value. 185. It's not like you have top set and are trying to trap a maniac.

Not betting less than 250 on this flop, probably 300, want to set up turn shove on most cards

Squeeze light and binked, now it's time to bet every chance we get.

Ps
Pretty horrible spot to squeeze tho!!

I'd bet around 250. Villain will never believe you hit this flop and I could possibly imagine him spazzing here

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$35 is a very large raise. What is his range in this spot? On the surface, it looks very strong. I'll give you props for picking a spot with some dead money in it to squeeze. However, if we don't expect UTG is folding pre we are gonna put ourselves in a lot of marginal spots postflop. This is super risky considering stack depths.

As played super easy bet on the flop.

Bad spot for the squeeze. Good-tight-utg raiser and we squeeze junky, no goot unless he is weak-bad-tight.

Now bet almost 35-40% pot. Squeeze calls from JJ TT if u can.

Depending on how quickly/easily he calls will tell whether i bet turn. 2 streets is all we get here unless he has AQ and we should be able to tell that by his reaction to the cbet i assume.

If he is good (in the real good sense) he doesnt have AQ and KQ often at all here so take that for what it may be worth considering.

Your analysis is off a bit here. The good tight player is the UTG+1 cold caller. UTG PFR is actually a bad player. You may want to re-check the hand history.

I am confused on semantics, I think raising with Q8ss is a 3 bet bluff, not a light 3 bet. I always understood a light 3 bet as raising with a hand that you think is better than your opponents but only slightly, like AJ/KQ type hands.

As played-
Bet $120- $170, like you are betting AK or a hand like 99-JJ, or a wiffed suited connector, and hoping for a cheap c-bet to take it down. Small bet might induce a bluff raise, get a call from a 99-JJ or 8x type hand, or get called by a JTss type hand.

Then a $390 turn bet.

Sets you up for a 525 river shove.

Not a good squeeze spot with a UTG 7x open imo.

What's your read on UTG? Obviously he folded, but he's your biggest concern.

Saying UTG is a "bad player" doesn't tell us anything.

Many "bad players" open raise large from EP with monsters.

C-bet around half pot.

There really aren't any reads on the players so bet sizing on the flop is very subjective. The board is bone dry you can bet like 1/3-1/2 pot as a default in large 3-bet/4-bet pots.

Bet $190. He shouldn't be folding TT+ on this flop and checking back on this dry board will just tell V that you don't have air and will make him less likely to hero call underpairs or bluff.

Hero slides 2 stacks of $100s out

I don't get it. Why would you think that you are perceived as an absolute nit? Obviously that is not true, since you squeezed twice before, you have been opening lighter and you stacked someone after you opened with a suited connector.

I'd go on the smaller side, hoping to induce a check raise. $170 sounds good.

I totally agree with ANL. If V is actually a good player, then he never has AQ/KQ here. His range is almost exclusively JJ-99.

I ended up betting $135. V folds.

My own image is definitely skewed in my own head now that I think about it and my perceived range is probably completely different than what I think of myself--need to fix that. At that point I had played maybe 2 hands in the past hour and a half so that's why I thought I looked nitty. Definitely got lucky on the flop. Thanks for the responses.

In the absence of reads, "hoping to induce a check-raise" is a bad reason to bet small on the flop. We've got top and bottom pair and an SPR of 3.2. The flop is a little dry, but let's give V the chance to overplay AQ and the small chance he tried to get cute with KK pre.

I'm more inclined to go even bigger on the flop than I previously responded. $250 on the flop is ~2/3 PSB and sets us up for a very easy turn shove of $815 into a pot of $845.

OP squeezed light and hit gin. If he's not comfortable stacking off here than he should reassess why he squeezed and alter his play accordingly.

Right you are sir and thanks.

My thoughts will come out the same though as UTG raise should be narrow, and good player flats right behind (strong range), and we now will squeeze junky vs two tight ranges. No good IMO.

Did you like or dislike the squeeze?

Disagree with bolded part. Why can't he have any lower pairs here with these effective stacks hoping to flop a set against V? And if he's folding 22-88, why is he calling with 99-JJ either?

You're right Bill, it's not a good spot. I just thought given in that particular spot I had hardly played any hands and wanted to take it down and had position.