hi 2p2. let's start with reads. this takes place about 9:30 PM on Friday.

MP: 30s white guy, very very quiet. not expressive, verbally or physically. was playing very crazy since i'd been at the table (maybe an hour). in online terms 95% vpip, 80% pfr, 15% 3b, 100% cb, double and triple barreling almost every time he got the opportunity. winning most pots without showdown, and winning most of his pots at showdown. doesn't seem to call a ton, will turn a small pair into a bluff rather than call and see a showdown. got caught bluffing a few times and almost went broke, but built his stack back up and is sitting on at least $650 and probably more. before he got caught bluffing he had just as many chips, so i'm assuming he'd been winning almost every pot since he'd been at the table. won probably 65% of all hands at the table when i was there. never seen this guy before, wondered if he was from out of town. has a water in front of him. at the time i briefly wondered if he was on drugs (opiates), but looking back i think he was intoxicated by the game.

BTN: 60s white guy, very successful business man, money is no object, is waiting for 2/5 but also plays high stakes. plays a huge amount of hands, calls way too much, isn't too aggressive, sometimes makes antagonistic verbal declarations when he gets all-in and has a decent hand. generally a very nice guy, calls a lot on the flop with pairs and will fold later in the hand. classic lap. has been running poorly this session and is in for ~1k but it doesn't matter to him. has about $190.

Hero (SB): mid-20s, racially ambiguous male. friends with BTN and have played with him extensively. have played some hands with MP and lost them all. folded a lot of flops. sitting with about $450. image is relatively tight but MP doesn't know me. BTN commented earlier how I'd been playing tight which was funny to me because i always play tight.

earlier in the night i played a hand with MP, BTN, and another MP limper. i donked twice from the BB on T8x6J and ck/f versus MP on river. i just sat down and didn't realize how crazy he had been playing and gave him credit for a decent hand.


the hand:

fold to MP who opens to $15. $11 had been his standard open and he once open-raised to $30 to which everyone folded. folds to BTN who calls. i'm in the SB with QQ and i make it $65. both players call.

flop is AA7 with two diamonds. pot is $198. i tank for a bit and check. MP checks. BTN bets $100 leaving himself with about $30 (standard for him to throw some chips in the pot and leave an indiscriminate amount behind). i start tanking and i see that MP is waiting to pitch his cards. i don't get the impression he is going to fake me out, but hey, i just met the guy.


1. what do you think about my pre-flop sizing? looking back it seems a little small, but i don't want to lose my customers who are both likely to pay off. spr seems good for my hand because i can ck/r MP and value bet BTN.

2. bad spot against BTN (facing a big bet on a two-tone board), but he's basically betting 1/2 psb all-in. not sure of his spazz factor. what do you do?

Rangewise it is close and depends on your sqz range. 1/2pot bet 3way we defend cca 45% check range. Supertight QQ+ AK easy fold. When you have JJ+ and some smaller aces for check cca 1:1 fold:call.
Explo I would rather fold, guess btn shouldnt be happy bluffing here.

Preflop is fine. It's enough to make it expensive to call and anything over 10% of your stack sets up a nice SPR. Of course if you could get more then more is good.

On the flop you just need to make your decision before you act. Either you are committed or you are not. Against either one of these two on their own I would feel committed but against both I'm probably giving up. As played, fold when passive BTN bets into this flop.

I would just bet this flop and plan to get it in against BTN.

It's hard for them to have an ace here since smaller aces will fold, so that only leaves hands like AK-AJ in their range which could have potentially 4-bet against you. Also you have two Q's so AQ is less likely...

Even more so if you have the Q of diamonds.

As played it's a toss-up, I think calling and folding are almost the same EV here. I probably call since you only need to be good ~30% of the time and BTN could be betting hands you beat such as 88-JJ or a flush draw.

thanks for the replies


i considered leading flop and calling a shove from BTN. if i lead flop, i have to bet an amount that won't induce a bluff from MP. however, MP had been playing more honest in MW pots so he may be less likely to bluff raise in this situation. how much would you bet on the flop?

fwiw when MP opens he has 100% of Ax hands in his range. i don't know how many combos he calls a 3b with, but i was confident he was folding after BTN bet flop and he "pre-loaded" his hand.

Inducing a shove from BTN isn't really worth it here cause you'd have to be something ridiculous like 50.

I'd just bet your standard C-bet here, whatever that is. Personally I'd make it 100 although if you think BTN might shove with worse if you bet 80, that's fine too. But yeah, overall, I'm betting this flop in order to protect my hand and take down an already sizable pot, even if there is a reasonable chance someone could have an ace.

In terms of MP's Ax range, I still wouldn't be worried about it because even loose players know better than to call a 3-bet with A5o or A7o, etc.

Cbetting 2nd pair is often bad idea.

Preflop sizing is fine oop ....as played and as described I definitely call btn and except to see mid pairs TT JJ about half the time and and ace other half .