Effective stacks $450

2 OTB 3SB 5BB 10straddle

Folds to V1 in MP who calls $10
Hero has A J and raises to $45
All fold to V1 who calls $45

Flop ($103)

J 7 4

V1 checks
Hero bets $70
V1 raises to $180
Hero?

V1 is late 40's asian guy. He's taggy with a side of trickery. I've seen him limp r/r with TT against a SF asian lady. An hour earlier I raised AA UTG+1 $30 and got 7 callers (I had been active so I chose a bigger number plus there was a limper fwiw). He raises to $120 in that hand, I shove (had like $400 effective at the time and he covered), and he folds. He seems to try and squeeze, but I haven't really seen to many huge bluffs, maybe just a tiny bit of overvaluing. I don't think he would call huge raises HU with small PP's, but ATM he is just coming back from a $1000 downswing and I am not sure where his head is at. He has seemed to pick it up a little though in terms of hands played. A hand or two earlier on a AKQQ board I folded and showed him AJ, he showed a Q. Bout the only I had shown.

Hero has been active, but tight. M opening range is wide, but consists primarily of broadway cards and pp's. I had opened QJs UTG and shipped a good size pot not to long ago. I'm not nitting it up that's for sure. I think he see's me as tight, but aggro as I have not limped many hands. Its been pretty much pump or dump.

Hero covers Villain in this hand.

I fold, AJ is like the bottom of what we're repping here and hes gone ahead and put half his stack in, if he really thinks this is a good time to bluff then well played to him.

Is villain the type to c/r the flop if he flopped a set on a dry board like this?

It is incredibly common for tricky/aggro type villains to hang on to straddle pots despite a preflop 3bet, then c/r ANYTHING they catch on the flop since hero will be c-betting 80%+ of the time. Usually, when there check raise is called, these villains shut down on turn.

I flat here and reevaluate turn. I could easily see villain doing this with Jx. If villain has QQ+ I think he 4bets you pre most of the time since people love to squeeze straddles and villain would be likely to think you are squeezing.

Based on your description of villain, i would be willing to go to war with this hand and this board. I think you'd win majority of confrontations in this spot against this sort of villain.

Lastly, if we are going to be folding TPTK on dry boards because of a c/r we are going to be extremely exploitable and perfect pickings for a villain that you describe as 'tricky'.

if he is real tricky and im not confident of what a CR would be, then i might chk back flop.

AP....i think i just ship on him. Looks like a flop we dont hit, so opens the door for him to take a shot. And who knows he may have Jx as well and call it off.

Asian and Taggy? I didn't know that was humanly possible!!!! I call and re-eval the turn and short of some crazy soulread prob get it in. Can't see him having QQ+ here and 77 and 44 would probably just call flop and let you fire another bullet on that bone dry board if he even calls them preflop.

What do we think villain will show up with? I can't see him showing up with 2-pair here.

I guess the range that beats us is: {JJ+, 44, 77}. I hope for his sake he doesn't have J7s or 47s.

I guess the range that we beat/tie is: {AJ, KJ, QJ}.

If we started the hand with more than 45BB effective, we might be able to fold. But with $450 effective in a 2/3/5/10 game, we are pretty short-stacked.

I don't see how we can fold. I'd just call because I don't want him to fold KJ to my ship. He has $220 behind effective, and I want to make sure I get it if I'm ahead, since I'm giving him the $220 if I'm behind.

I'd then call an AI on the turn, or bet if checked to.

Shipping OTF is probably fine too because it's hard for him to fold for another $220, even if he has KJ, or QJ.

I don't have stove on this computer, but we need 37% equity to call. (Kinda high).

Marginal spot. Thin fold, thin call/shove. I'd get it in.

Its a 2/3/5 game. Only a few times has it been straddled to $10

If he does this will KJ or worse, it's a ship. If not it's a fold. So it is 100% villain dependent in that respect...

If we have seen him stack off with less than TPTK, it's a ship. If not, it's a soul-read.

Still, with the straddle on we are playing 45BB effectve. It is hard to be wrong going AI OTF with TPTK and a pot of 10BB, a c-bet of 7BB, and then 33BB behind.

Although it is a huge mistake to fold the best hand OTF when our best hand is TPTK.

With history of raise/folding, I think it's a ship. There is meta-game between you to. I think you should just ship it.

45 big blinds. Top pair, top kicker in a raised po against a villain who isn't a nit. Easy call, call any turn.

If the 4 was a 3, you could name this flop the Sahara. If he had a set, he'd certainly want you to bang your head a couple of times against him, rather than chase you off.

I agree with ANL everyone should be committed, but I disagree with the shove. Just because you know you aren't folding doesn't mean he knows he shouldn't fold with Jx. I'd call the raise and see what he does on the turn. There's only about a 1/2 PSB left, you're not worried about the turn card, so you can bet the turn if he doesn't bet it.

Normally i would agree with the logic here as it is sound. However shipping flop gives villain just a tiny bit of wonder whether hero is just shipping overs etc, whereas calling flop leaves no doubt that hero has a big made hand. Or at least a decent made hand for sure.

And this comes down to judging villain. When we call flop, we are never folding turn. To anybody with half a brain, this is clear. In this case ship flop is better cause they never bet turn with worse hand. IME people are stupid enough that call/call is better.

I know what you're saying. We're almost at the point of arguing where exactly his fishiness state is. A shove certainly jiggles the idiot switch. I'm just concerned that at late 40's TAG is going to walk away getting more pressure with TPGK, despite the fact he shouldn't. Now if he was a mid 20's guy with his girlfriend sitting behind him and his buddies floating around the room, I'm all for a shove because you attacked his manhood.

Do you guys really feel a straddle affects the game so much? I always feel that while players loosen up in regard to calling the straddle their general ranges stay pretty similar after the pot gets 3bet pre, obviously you guys consider it to halve effective stacks relative to blinds but all I really see it doing is making us get it in ridic lighter than usual compared to how much everyone else loosens up. Especially vs villains who think more along the actual monetary amount than the amount of blinds they have in front of them which most live players are like.

As to the hand I know I said fold earlier but thinking it over again its :S I don't see why villain would be picking such a crappy spot to bluff, the history points to him being decent, but theres also only 2 possible hands, 77 and 44 that beat you that he could show up with I suppose.

I guess taking it to showdown isn't bad but you've described the guy in a way that I feel he is too adept to be taking this line with KJ with since he'd be turning it into a bluff, and a bluff is all I think we beat. If I was going to continue I'd flat and call any turn but I still think its closer to a fold. I'd probably fist pump shove if there were a FD in the flop though.

fold? this is all about whether to shove overtop or call and stack off turn. given reads, i agree with ANL. not b/c villain is so bad, but b/c he seems to have at least some ability, so he's likely to think through the fact that our flop shoving range is likely to be weaker than our flop smooth calling range here.

this way we extract more value from TPGK. if it's a complete bluff, we're unlikely to get any more value out of him anyway. and if he has a set then he is either ******ed or truly 1 level above us and possibly a rather good player.

"what he said"...

mmm, but can the guy really be raising KJ for value in the first place? Value from what, AK? After reading the history in the OP I don't see this villain playing KJ like this (flatting straddle, flatting a big raise vs hero who hes been playing tight against OOP?) and if he did I imagine he'd go for a calldown, he has AK dead to 3 outs and no draws out there to scare him so there shouldn't be much he needs to re raise with.

I think all we beat here is a total bluff, and while the villain is capable of it I doubt he thinks this is a good spot for it.