Trying to get my game back up to speed after a long time away.

1/3NL, MGM National Harbor

Hero is MAWG, winning image. Active raiser preflop, but haven't shown down any wild hands (mostly just running good). $1,000

Villain is white guy in his mid 20s. Took a weird bluffing line during his first orbit at the table (raised $15 pre, bet $30 on a wet flop, $30 on brick turn, $20 on brick river and then folded to a raise), but otherwise has been pretty quiet. Doesn't seem overly laggy or bluffy. Competent, but non-threatening. $400.

Hero picks up QsQc in UTG+1. Raise to $15. This has usually been getting 1-2 callers at the table, and has been my standard size. Loose-passive player in late position calls ($200), then V makes it $60 from the small blind. Folds to hero.

Here's where I really regret not having better reads: I really don't know how this guy treats JJ/1010/AK when faced with a four-bet. I think this is a standard 4-bet/fold spot if I'm up against a player who will only ship AA/KK, but it's a big mistake to 4-bet/fold against a player who will ship JJ/1010/AK. I haven't seen him three-bet in the hour or two he's been at the table, so I don't know how to categorize him.

I decide to just call the $60 and evaluate the flop. I'll have position on him and a winning image. My main thought at this point is that I want to keep his range wide, so that the times I gii against AA/KK are offset by the times he commits his stack with 1010/JJ. Loose-passive player folds.

Flop ($135) is 234. Villain bets $60 without much hesitation. Hero calls.

I think this flop call is pretty standard. His bet looks like an overpair to the board. Kings should be betting more, to defend Ace-hands that picked up outs. Villain has $280 left in his stack, so if I raise he can comfortably fold his weaker overpairs while getting it in with AA/KK. Calling leaves me vulnerable to a bad turn card, but I'm really only worried about an A, K, or 5, and I'll have position on him to see how he reacts to those cards as well.

Turn ($255) is an 8. Villain pauses to evaluate, then bets $125.

I think we've now reached a commitment threshold. Villain has $155 left, so he's going to be pot-committed with 10s and jacks. He isn't going to fold AA and KK regardless. And if he has turned AK or some random hand into a bluff, then I want to charge him for the draw or let him fold whatever equity he now has.

Hero shoves.

Thoughts/critiques of my reasoning?

From his POV, you’ve capped yourself by not 4b pre. He could be barreling all kinds of Axs with wheel draw and perceived range advantage. Or actually he could be just betting with a mid pair, which he may well think has you beat now.

I like your shove as you’re underrepresented here and should blow him off Ax. He may well call down with a mid pair you beat. SPR is such that it’s all going in anyway on the river. So you might as well target Ax because if a 5 rivers you’re kicking yourself.

Shove on turn AINEC. I would have played it same way.

Same. Only better card would be one that brought a backdoor draw. Good shove.

nh I shove too if I play it this way

Calling pre is totally fine. I think if you 4b you commit yourself and cant fold to a jam.
AP i also jam

all in turn

Pre seems good

Flop seems good

Turn seems good. Folding is out of the question with this depth and action. No point in playing this way to then fold here. You have a strong hand, time to get it in, wp

For some reason I didn't grunch, but unlike others, I think this is a really gross spot.

It's slightly less gross due to our active image, but in the end we raised in EP, called a 3bet from the blinds in a multiway pot (a 3bet! from the blinds!), and dude has fired two very callable bullets. Due to our activeness, our hand isn't likely as face up as it could be, but it could still be slightly face up (we mostly haz a decent pear at minimum by this point, with the lone exception being Ax overs + gutshot).

At smaller stacks (like $200) this would be a pretty trivial sigh-live-with-results spot. But as stacks get much larger (and while $400 definitely isn't deep it definitely ain't short either), it becomes grosser. And yeah, villain has shown one wonky bluffing line... for *extremely* small lol meaningless amounts. This time he seems rather cool playing for big amounts for $400 stacks.

Definitely not hating on others calling for a shove at this point. Just saying it's a gross spot.

ETA: Overall, I think I'm cool with the shove plan. But it really depends on how active we've been and how 3betty people at your tables are in general. AA/KK take this line pretty much 100% of the time. JJ/TT/99 don't take this line even remotely as much. Heck, even against a semi-active EP raiser plus just one caller I'm often just seeing a flop here OOP with JJ with these stacks and going from there; lots of players don't 3bet these hands OOP, and at the very least certainly start re-evaluating after their flop bet after the flop 3bet has also been called. And how often do AK really double barrel in your games? Most people are one and done OOP.

Ggrossspot,imoG

Ya, GROSS... also makes me think that based on what u described in the hand he played before he was either value-betting small until raised, or bluffing small and get raised. Both situation his bet sizing was small and now hes betting alright. Maybe before he was just advertising.

Too many times Villan shows JJ or 1010 for us to fold QQ tough. mmmmm

Thin.... very thin..... Gray area.... very gray....

Im more towards a call if i factor in some J10s type-hand that random Villan can have.

I rather make a mistake in calling than folding tough.

This was probably not a bluff, no idea why you would assume it was.
...


I dunno, this is probably not happening. He's not folding TT/JJ, especially since A high hands have the gutshot.

I don't particularly like where I'm at right now, but at this point I'm mostly going for it as well, I guess.

Thanks for the feedback. Results:

Villain grimaced, called. I announced I had queens and he shook his head. River was an Ace. He mucked and left.

In retrospect, I think this was the right line. Not a fist-pump shove by any means, but I have too much hand strength to fold, have to live with the times I run into AA/KK, and thus can take a line that keeps more 1010/JJ in his range unless I have an exploitable read I can use.

This could be a difficult spot, especially if villain's 3bet range from the blinds vs an EP raiser is mostly AA and KK. Until I've had some good reads, I found that most rec's don't adjust their raising ranges vs an active player so for this spot, I'd put them on nutted hands. Versus a thinking player, I wouldn't put them on a range with middling pairs like JJ, TT, 99, etc. but rather lean towards suited connectors with AA and KK.