Enjoying the hand discussion. On the meta-game side... why did he show this fold?

a) Planting a seed (One of these guys is going to push me out of a pot if they see this)
b) Ego issues (See how awesome I am? I know I'm beat)

Meh get it in if he will call with worse.

Oh and a $25 raise is usually weak as he'll in that game fwiw what was his pf raise sizing with aa kk qq?

Open raises in this game are 20-25. He raises the same always

- LAG Villain calls light preflop, opens wide
- We crush his range

I'm not positive but i feel like you're supposed to put money in the middle when you have the most the equity and these two statements seem to suggest we have the most equity vs our LAG.

I re-pop to iso and am putting money in on most flops.

Additionally, V2 and V3 should put you on a strong strong range and fold out unless they're awful as well. I imagine you play a fairly snug game and a raise out the blinds here should be perceived as strong even if they're on the tight side and wouldnt CC a raise w/o a decent hand.

Alternatively - you can sit back and wait for AA/KK, but i dont get big pairs that often; i'm simply not a lucky enough fella.

Flatting is suicidal since you're OOP 4 way on a flop w/ zero initiative. You might have good relative position since you can check to preflop raiser and see what he does and how V2 and V3 react but I wouldnt be surprised if V2 or V3 are widening their calling/raising range against the LAGy player - meaning you will have a harder time defining their ranges (v2 and v3 respectively).

I'm going to have to agree with the statements that you should either be raising to iso or folding if you're uncomfortable in this spot.

I would make it 125 and use my judgement and ship to a 4 bet.

OK, WE have to straighten something out here. Calling 160 cold with 44, he better have had about 500bb and cover villain, and villain be a nit. Otherwise he is lagTARD. I dont care if he folded AA some other hand.

I'd 3-bet to $150. If i get HU with the LAG villain, i bet dry flops and check all flops that i hit.....let him spew yo.

you keep stating that if you have 1 pair and he raises you on the flop your one pair isn't going to be good. if that is really true (and i don't think it is otherwise you wouldn't be terribly worried about playing with him post) then you should be 3 betting an amount that you think he will call without bringing others in behind him (around 150-200 depending on the table) and then bet-folding all flops.

I think you feel that he will outplay you on some boards which means he is going to raise some hands that are not better than one pair. This means that he is going to pay you sometimes when you flop top pair. in that case i don't mind a slightly smaller raise that may or may not knock out the callers behind him say 100-125 range and then playing fit or fold on the flop with a huge pot built in the middle.

i think that smooth calling pre with 180bb's against a player that has position and you believe has the ability to outplay you post is a much worse option than 3 betting.

Grunch

I am raising here. AKo is a terrible hand in multiway pots. you need to thin the field and obv try to iso super LAG. make it $130 and then play some poker post flop. Yes, i know the arguments already....let them fly.

HOLY ****! So i just read all posts and am SHOCKED that my opinion was the super majority. Not even a month ago this same exact situation arose in another thread. I gave the same arguement i did above and got flamed by just about every poster in the thread trying to tell me i am insane to 3bet AKo when we will be OOP in a bloated pot blah blah blah....crazy how big a difference a month makes around here.

Here's the thing...OP is not comfortable playing a bloated pot oop with AKo vs these villains at this time. That is important to the situation. If she 3bets and flops an A or K, she's still not going to be comfortable. So, OP, just play it passively and call. If you miss the flop, check/fold and move on. If you hit the flop, check raise clean looking boards and check-call scarier boards. Just play poker.

3betting AKo from the blinds is not a requirement. I don't disagree that it is a reasonable play and a good play. But OP says these folks are not folding, and she doesn't fell comfortable playing it that way. Just flat and play poker.

*Grunch
I would just call here.

So, OP, you say the money all went in...What happened? Curious as hell (and hope you got there).

5 month bump for super standard spot, wtf?

I'm betting on AI and lost.

LOL i didnt even notice the date on this thing, nice work.

If your only goal is to keep the pot small-ish and not get stacks in with one pair, then flatting will get you that.

That being said, I would probably still 3bet to about $100-$125. The pot will naturally be big enough that S/P would indicate that you should stack off with TPTK. But if you don't want to call off your whole stack with TPTK, then why not check shove the flop and at least get some fold equity? If villain is as laggy as you say, then I'm sure he won't be able to resist stabbing at the pot if you check away the lead. You might lose value from his bluffs or marginal hands, but you might also fold out some draws or other hands that have decent equity against you.