2/5

V1/v2 are nitty passive recs. They limp tightish but very capped ranges. I wouldn't expect to see AQo+ or JJ+

v3 is the main villain. I probably play with him once a week for a few hours at a time. He really hates folding preflop, I saw him stack off with A5o for $200 earlier. He is very sticky post flop when he makes a hand but he's capable of folding air or an underpair etc. He straddles about 50% of the time and tonight he's feeling gambly and is raising 75% of his straddles. He's raising all sorts of junk like 74s and 87o.

Hero SB ($625 effective) Image is TAG for v1/v2 but irrelevant for v3.

V3 straddles MP. V1 and v2 limp HJ/CO.

H looks down at AQhh in the SB. Hero limps with the plan to limp reraise.

v3 $50, v1 folds, v2 calls.

H$200, v3 calls, v2 folds.

pot:$460

Flop: 9cTc4h

H shoves $425.

First two notes:
v3 called on the quicker side preflop. I'm pretty sure he never has QQ+ given this read but this might take some of the 22-55 and 65s type hands out of his range.

v3 usually squeezes to more like $35 in this spot, this was a bit larger for him indicating a slightly stronger hand than usual which made me more hesitant to stick to the limp reraise plan.

Ok...not my standard line so a little bit to unpack here.

Why the limp raise:

The plan preflop is to play a big pot against someone with a terrible range while also picking up dead money from the limpers who likely will flat the whale. Just opening AQ is very reasonable but playing the pot OOP 4 ways while fine isn't ideal.

Why the shove:

First I'll concede, and I knew this in real time, that these types of boards are close to the nut low boards to jam. So much of his range is going to flop a piece here but...

It's hard to come up with a range for V where we have less than 42% equity and most of the ranges I come up with we have about 46%. If he has ATo+, KJo+, 66-JJ, all suited broadway, A5s+, then we have about 46%. If he hadn't called quickly I would think he would be wider than that but I do think the quick call matters.

We could consider check/fold as well. If he jams all club draws, big value hands, all Tx, all 9x, all QJ we have 27%. The problem is if he jams even just KQ to go along with all the obvious jams then we have the right price to get it in. I would also expect him to jam things like 66-88 but hard to say.

Every option post-flop sucks, which you could argue is a result of the limp raise and resulting SPR, but we really did just get a ****ty flop. AQhh vs his described range has 62.7%.

I havent validated the 46%, but if thats right, dont we need to break it down to what portion of his range that you stated folds, and what equity we have against his calling range here. If he has any piece you're getting called it feels like.

My inkling is sure, he folds a chunk of hands but as you say this is his board more than ours and when he calls our equity is going to be really crap so i'm not sure how +EV this play is if at all and whether it's worth the variance!

On the plus side you'll certainly create an exploitable wild/loose image if your called and lose

I like it, both the reasoning pre and post. Nice hand+ well played in my opinion.

Once we choose to limpreraise pre with AQ, and we get one caller heading to the flop with less than a pot sized bet behind i think we have to be prepared to ship all but the very worst of flops. If we dont, then i dont like the limp-reraise pre either. Check-folding seems too weak or too weak/tight if you want, after taking this line and with the amount of money thats in the pot already.

Like if we have red AQ i will check/give up on 3 clubs or 3 spades flop, those kind of horrendous boards. This one isnt ideal for sure, but i still think a shove is preferable given the spot we are in.

I don’t see this villain ever folding a better hand. He’ll call with his 2-5 outer and look to suck out. The only value you can extract is from his bluff range and in order to target that you need to check. You need 32% to stack off and probably have 27% versus his made hand range.

Shoving seems -EV. Check/call (or x/jam) seems like it could be marginally +EV but either way it’s not a very profitable spot.

I agree with johnnyBuz. I think a small bet to induce spaz is probably ideal.

You chose to bloat the pot OOP against a sticky player with a hand which will miss the flop the majority of the time when you barely have more than 120bb to start the hand. You practically committed yourself to playing for stacks after all but the worst flops.

I think better plans PF would be to either limp/call or limp/shove.

Not a way to attack a whale who has issues folding.

If you felt a raise was going 4 ways preflop. We raise to $25. Gives a $100 pot and easy road to get stacks in vs whale on favorable flops.

Your idea is trying to create fold equity that doesn't exist.

Limp/calling is bad plan almost always. But after he raises to $50 pre. The guy isn't folding to standard 3bet.
So calling the raise and hoping others do as well. Is likely way more EV.

You set up perfect spot for him. He should be calling with all his draws and any 1 pair hands he has. Even though you should be heavily weighted to AA, KK.

Not exactly accurate either. We are actually pushing our preflop equity here with our large preflop raise with AQ, and thus getting villain to be putting in large amount of money preflop with likely weaker hands.

Okay, we raise to $25 pre: how many times do we burn $25 by raising OOP and getting multiple callers with a hand that will whiff the flop completely 2 out of 3 times? Like alot of the times.

Playing offsuit AQ/AK OOP isnt always easy no matter what you do really, especially against more sticky players.

Don't get caught pushing small edge to many times. When he is offering you a lot of spots with huge edge.

That edge requires us to realize our equity postdoc OOP.

Getting 4:1 preflop with suited AQ is printing cash from any position.

Results: hero gets snapped call by TT and loses.

Thanks for the input.

I think the variation in his preflop raise size was key and I should have changed the gameplan at that point, mostly preflop and then possibly on the flop as well given what Johnny and others are saying.