V is an unknown 40-50 year old who just sat with 1,200, hero covers. Presumable rec. This is his first hand.

Game is 1/2 with 10 button straddle with ultimate last action on the button. Action starts UTG, not on small blind. $2 promotional rake + time rake

Hero with AsJs raises to 30, folds to V in CO who raises to 90, folds to hero, hero calls, button straddle folds.

Flop $191 AcQsJh hero checks, v bets 100, hero calls.

Turn $371 AcQsJh2d hero checks, v bets 230, hero calls.

River $831 AcQsJh2d2c hero checks, v jams all in $780. Hero?

I think it’s a call at 120bb deep.

You’re behind 13 hands (1 AA, 3 QQ, 1 JJ, 3 AQ, 4 KTs for a loose open), ahead of 8 AK, and chopping 1/2 AJ (depends if he 3b AJs). You have equity to call river bet.

How often are random recs going to tripple off and jam river with AK?

I don't love it but I would call.

I think we have to call.

Assuming he is a random rec, right?

If he's a reg, I'd expect him to slow down and check back river with AK. A rec-fish would probably be more likely to go down in flames with AK. If he's secretly a reg playing the role of a rec-fish, he's probably taking you to value town with AQ+.

Maybe he's got KK or QQ?

I dunno, man. We liked our hand pre, liked it enough on the flop, and continued on the turn. How do we let it go on the river?

If you knew this would be the run-out and the action, would you have folded pre?

I can find the fold on the river assuming he is a random rec bc they never jam AK here, they would just check it back. In my game a lot of good regs would probably check back river w AK too because a lot of the recs in the pool will just never put in a raise w a set or 2pair here.

I dont know if this guy is a random rec. Random recs typically dont 3bet, and when they do they usually dont use correct sizing. 1st hand im gonna give him credit here. Not enough players are finding the river jam w AK. I think you just see hands that beat you here. I wouldnt be surprised if they even check back the AJ chops, and i wouldn't be surprised if they never even 3bet AJ.

Fold for me.

These boards tend to be underbluffed especially in a live setting as most of the time the villain has showdown value, at least in their mind. Looking at ranges you're probably capped at JJ and of course he's uncapped - you'll have a ton of two pair hands here yet he's still barreling into you. Don't think he has AK - our hand looks a lot like two pair maybe AK. It's just hard to come up with plausible bluffs - you'd need him to get wild with AT,KQ,KTs,JTs,etc. I'd probably fold this readless.

I'm folding pre to this guy.

As played, people check back the river with AK like 99% of the time. What are we beating then? I would just fold. If he shows us T9s we now know what he's capable of.

I like folding pre. a lot more than I like folding river.
We are basically in the same spot in both cases but it's a _lot_ cheaper preflop to be wrong about his 3bet range.
Yes, he's fired three times and it's probably underbluffed but all we've done is call and we are also pretty high in our range.


Depending on the random rec. he can fire AK for value the entire way, and I think AA/QQ and maybe even AQ go bigger on the flop (and/or go for a x/r, esp. with QQ) and KTs isn't there (ever) or enough to care about. Then there's the random factor where he has like T7s and just assumes it'll get through.


Also while the sizing is really good to get the river shove, it could be an accident as the only size that is kind of unusual is the 230 on the turn and I'd expect a lot of good hands to go bigger there ... although it's not like there's even a flush draw.

I'm not calling the 3b! preflop OOP with AJs.

As played, I'm folding to the river jam. I don't think many are doing this with AK. 1/2 players just aren't bluffing enough for me to find a call here. It should have been noted that calling OTT means V has <PSB going into the river. I'm not necessarily advocating for folding the turn, but it shouldn't be surprising we're seeing a jam OTR.

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They have top top and even counterfeit QJ ... they fired all the way and you just called, how is the best one pair not always good?
Would be much happier to both call pre. and fold river if we knew he was a good rec. or anything really.

I might just fold pre-flop vs. an unknown, and I probably just fold the turn. Not sure I have it in me to fold the flop now that we are here.

Do you get any read off this guy?

I've triple-barreled with worse hands.

Probably against worse opponents, too.

Call me stupid or crazy, but KT is the effective nuts here, right? Maybe you don't open with KT, but does he know that? Why can't you have AA here, for all he knows? Why would it be more okay for him to play QQ this way, but not AK, if QQ still loses to AA and KT? AK at least blocks both those hands, whereas QQ doesn't block $hlt.

My point is I could see random rec taking this line with AK, KK, QQ, AT, QT, and probably a lot more hands not worth typing out. Maybe he had it. Maybe he didn't.

Maybe your decision to fold seems more logically defensible than calling, based on the strength of your hand, but that doesn't mean he wasn't over-playing something you beat. Some old-school peeps will say if you call the turn, you have to call the river when nothing's changed. You're working off a generic, all-purpose read that says V doesn't triple-barrel bluff.

Maybe he wouldn't. But maybe he would. Maybe your gut told you to fold, and your brain needed a rational reason why, so your brain said, "random rec doesn't triple barrel bluff", because conscious brain doesn't understand what unconscious brain is doing.

I would call. I feel like he could be doing this with AK thinking smaller aces will call cause they have a Q kicker.

And for the same reason doing it with stuff like AT knowing you can't have AK.