Hero is in the BB with $1,500+ playing $2/5 NL at Aria. Friday night.

EP (~$1,000) raises to $25 in EP. EP appears to be a reg/pro, but villain is relatively new to the table and likely does not know this.

Villain (~$1,200) raises to $60 from HJ. Villain appears to be from out of town (I assume this because he's carrying around a backpack). White male, probably mid to late 20s with glasses. Hadn't notice any hands he has played yet and he is relatively new to the table.

Table folds to Hero. While this is happening, one of the players folds the A, which accidentally gets exposed, and the dealer has announced that that will be the burn card for the hand.

What should Hero do and why?

Let's say Hero raised to $205 (comments/thoughts on sizing?). Folds around to the HJ who thinks for a bit, asks Hero how much he is playing behind, and then makes it $510.

What should Hero do and why?

I will post my thoughts after some discussion. Hopefully this will be interesting enough to generate a good thread. Would love to hear what some others think about this hand. Thanks.

In this spot I likely flat with QQ vs 4bet. Namely because I am OOP with little info on my opponents other than "looks like". If I 4bet and he 5bets I'm letting it go. So I'd rather flat the $60 and evaluate the flop with more info.

As far as the 4bet sizing of $205, I feel like it's a bit large. You can get the same results at $150, and as stated above, when he 5bets me, I'm just laying it down. So if the plan is to 4bet fold here, why make it any more than need be?

If I had better info, such as the OR has tendencies to open light in EP and the 3bettor was aware of this and likely to 3bet light, then yeah I'm 4 betting and likely jamming anything except a 5bet from the EP raiser.

Without reads, this is a fold. If an unknown is 5-bet spazzing against another unknown, so be it. We've shown a ridiculous amount of strength and yet V wants to put the 5th bet in - this is KK+.

The 4-bet sizing is okay, maybe on the high side. I'd make it $160-$170. It's an interesting hand for sure, we obviously aren't folding. Why not flat and keep our range wide? It sucks we're OOP but if villain is thinking at all our hand can be more than QQ+ and AK.

I think if we flat the 3bet, the original raiser is very likely to flat it as well since it's only 35 more for him to call and see a flop and at WORST we could be set mining but I am not so fast to put the 3bettor on kings. (I am not 4betting, since we would be wasting the queens if someone 5bets us and if the ep raiser decides to pump it up we still get out cheap).

The villains sizing of just over a min raise is not helping his image and his range can easily include tens and jacks with that sizing. No good player will min raise with aces and kings with people still left to act.

4betting is not good read less. We're usually just isolating against a range that crushes us.

Call AINEC.

i think calling is the standard play, is this an actual hand or just a theory hand?

we are pretty deep but facing that raise against a reg in EP, cold 4bet here is pretty strong but since we have QQ we are most like be facing AK, KK, AA and at best flipping if we GII.

my standard line here is cold call 3bet and fold if EP 4bets. if EP flats, I will probably call another bet OTF w/o an Ace or King.

"...While this is happening, one of the players folds the A, which accidentally gets exposed, and the dealer has announced that that will be the burn card for the hand. ..."

Not in Las Vegas. When a player folds a card and exposes it while folding, it is shown to one and all so no one gets an unfair advantage.

But the burn card doesn't change, they still burn the top card of the deck.

This deep I personally call the 3bet, and play poker after. 4 Betting to $160ish isn't bad, 4 Betting big is a problem in that we should be snap folding to a 5 bet, and we don't want to make a JJ/TT/AQ hands to fold

In agreement with most others, i prefer a flat, if i 4bet i go $100 more, same info can be found out.

given how deep we are, I just can't see folding as a viable option, we have odds to set mine our QQ.

So I flat, if original raiser 4-bets then I'm likely folding since we wouldn't have odds to set mine anymore.

The tricky question is whether we are setmining our QQ or playing it for value. We need to expect a c-bet from V to around $120 come 95% of all flops, so I would probably be prepared to call one c-bet and reevaluate turn while also bird dogging super hard for tells.

Lastly, it's been my experience that in this spot, I want to project as much strength as possible to reduce the likelihood of V bluffing me off my hand. So no tentative tank calls, not hesitation with our actions. Preflop, I would size up as if I'm considering doing a 4-bet however not too much hollywood, just a very simple quick stack up like I'm 4-betting then I just call the 3-bet. Come flop, I check/call with surety and strength and then V should better define his hand with his turn sizing. Obviously, we are over the moon if we flop a set. And if we have the Q and the flop/turn brings 3-diamonds I would consider being a bit more aggro depending on the bet sizing and V's demeanor...

but not to turn this into a soul reading post. We want to birddog V hard looking for any tells and paying really close attention to his bet sizing and intent because QQ is almost too strong to set mine. However, we may have to set mine it depending on how the post flop action goes...

Anyways, I flat...

are you calling one c-bet automatically even if the flop is A9Kss?

I like cold calling. 4bet/f here sucks, and you can more believably mess around/turn your hand into a bluff on low flops than either other player.

Just because he has a backpack doesn't mean he's from out of town. It actually may be more likely he's a local grinder. We almost always have backpacks.

Definitely just flatting 3 bet.

In your hypothetical, definitely folding QQ to a 5bet from an unknown.

In the hand, I 4-bet to $205, the EP initial PFR folded, and the HJ made it $510. I folded after maybe 30 seconds of thought.

I figured given the A having folded, he had less a chance of having AA. TBH, I didn't realize that flatting here was so standard. Though in retrospect, I guess 4-betting exposes my hand face up so that my opponent can either 5-bet fold, knowing that if I shove, I very likely have the AA, or take it down now with a hand like AK, knowing he now has 1 less out.

I guess I figured that being out of position, I wanted to raise pre and make him pay to get involved. I also figured that if he did have a bigger PP, like AA or KK, he'd 5-bet and I could rightly fold, as unknowns rarely 5-bet pre without AA (unless he's a reg pro). I also thought that with the A having been exposed, villain would discredit the possibility I have AA and reraise me to try and take the hand down. But again, without reads against each other, this may just be me leveling myself.

So yeah, in retrospect, flatting here would have allowed me to stay in the hand and not get bet off of QQ. Just as someone else said, while it would suck to be out of position, there are still quite a few boards that I can continue on against the HJ, and obviously if I hit a set and he did indeed have a good big pair, I may be able to stack him.

Thanks for the insight all.

Yeah, unfortunately, I didn't consider this as much as I was thinking at the time, I want to find out if he really has AA or KK. I need to think about flatting in these types of situations more and keeping my range wide so as to keep my opponents guessing. In retrospect for me, flatting to keep worse hands in and keeping my opponent guessing as to my hand is so much clearly better than how I played it.

Thanks.

no, i'd let that one go.

An interesting situation though would be an A 4 8r flop. I would donk bet and look hard for tells that V has KK and is disgusted. Normally, players with KK snap fold them on A high boards in disgust and show their KK so everyone can revel in their sorrow with them.

Obviously it would be a bet/fold line trying specifically to fold out KK. If called, then I need to spike a Q on the turn or else I'm done...