At a 1/2 or 1/3 game, when I get 3b when holding JJ, I don’t think twice before insta-mucking it unless I have 15x implied odds to setmine vs most opponents.

But I’ve started playing 2/5 last week at another casino, the game seems full of TAG regs and last night, I faced two 3bets within an hour holding JJ and wasn’t sure if I’m supposed to call or fold in these spots vs reg-type tight players. Here are the hands:


Hand 1: $450 eff full table

HJ ($300 old guy) open limps, Hero ($550) raises to $25 with JJ in CO, BTN reg ($450) 3bets to $80, folds to Hero ?


Hand 2: $550 eff 6-handed

Hero opens JJ UTG to $20, SB MAWG asks how much I have and makes it $75, Hero ?


In both these spots, I absolutely have no odds to setmine but I also know that villain in hand 1 is positionally aware and can be 3betting a wider range like TT+/AQ+ and not just QQ+ like at 1/3.

And villain in hand 2 although looks stronger than hand 1, he can still have AK and we have position post-flop where we know he’ll play pretty face up.

What should a defence range look like in 2/5? Should we just keep folding JJ to 3bets when this shallow if we don’t have any reads? Shoving seems excessive and calling doesn’t look that attractive either.


Will post results later.

"vs reg type tight players" it's a fold. A tight player is going to have a narrow 3betting range that crushes jacks. The fact that he's a reg is pretty much irrelevant since all it means is he frequents the poker room but the fact he's tight is the reason we should fold. Hand 2 is a snap fold.

In these situations I generally fold until I know for a fact his 3betting range is wide.

First hand you definitely can't fold. Whether you want to flat or stack off is up to you, either is reasonable. Second hand, just fold. People don't attack UTG raises from the SB light. If he had AK, the raise would probably be larger, the sizing is designed to keep you in the hand. The two hands are night and day in terms of how strong your perceived raising range is.

Don't group these two hands together simply because your JJ got 3!. As Venice likes to repeat to himself (and this forum), "they are (usually) not playing back at you.... they are (usually) not playing back at you." Your title makes me think that by hand 2, you might be entertaining some entitlement tilt, as you know JJ is a great starting hand in a vacuum and think you need to make a stand. But to the actual hands:

Hand 1: Grunch. Could be CO vs. BU violence as he is thinking you are isolating, but w/o any more reads I think I make a nitty fold OOP. I think flatting is probably the worst option OOP and I don't absolutely hate a shove.

Hand 2: I think this is a fold. If SB is an aggressive type who can 3! more than most low limit players, he still shouldn't be doing it very often here since this same type of player should respect your UTG range and certainly not want to play a pot with you OOP without a very strong hand. If he's on the clueless side, he probably only 3! with strong hands anyway. We will be in position post-flop, but just don't think we have the setmining odds and I think SB's range is crushing our hand.

+1

1. I’m shoving for value. The dynamic near the blinds is such that BUT should be 3b/calling it off with a very wide range, and JJ is simply too strong. If we only continue here with QQ+ AKs+ it’s too tight/ exploitable.

2. Fold. Here we have a very tight range UTG and so JJ is closer to the bottom of our hand distribution.


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