$600 eff.

My image: TAG + a bit card dead lately.

Previous history with villain from a couple of days ago: Tried to bluff villain on AAx flop OOP OTF after he raised preflop. He called, turn went check-check. I caught a K OTR (I had KT) and bet for thin value. He called off with A7. Bad bluff, bad idea, but villain probably villain remembers and this probably put a bit of a wild/aggressive image of me into his head even though this was a dumb horribad play uncharacteristic of my game. I was impressed the guy was good enough to pot control with trips.

Villain: Young tourist from Asia who usually plays $0.50/$1 online but decided to try live for the first time ever a few days ago. Super aggressive. Two hands ago 3-barrelled bluff shoved ($500 eff) into another player with K-high and got stacked by 2-pair (few people are capable of 3-barreling at $2/$5). May be tilting a bit. Auto raises HJ, CO, Button to $15 - seems like a range not far from ATC, maybe 70%, maybe even higher. Despite superaggressiveness does have a fold button. I still haven't completely figured out if he's truly fishy or just very aggressive.

I have A4o in SB. Folds around to V OTB who makes it $15. I don't usually 3-bet with A4o but vs against this particular guy raising every LP... I felt adventurous and made it $45. BB folds; V is not pleased but calls after a short delay.

Flop: A23r Pot ~ 95 I c-bet $65. V calls.
Turn: 2 Pot ~ $225 I check. V bets $140. I don't usually call with TPNK... but when I do I have a special reason - in this case, I'm playing the player. I don't think he has an Ace in his hand. I have one and there's one on the board which makes him having an Ace less likely. I strongly feel my A is good and he's trying to float IP. I feel 2 is a good card for me which means if my Ace was good OTF, it's probably still good. I also still have a gutshot. I CALL.

Let's pause this exciting tale here and hear from you if this is spew or not.

Thinking is good - overthinking is detrimental to the bank roll. Fundamentals first - you have no business completing the blind - insta-muck - no one can convince me otherwise.

Fold pre unless you know villain folds too much to 3 bets, or calls too wide and folds too much to flop cbets.

I'm reminded of Riverman's excellent post here. "Super-aggressive" + "has a fold button" = VERY bad spot for you here. It's easy to get caught up in thinking you need to play back at V, and he can't have a hand, but in the cold light of day you've committed over 18% of your stack OOP with A4o and you still have no idea where you stand on the turn. If you call, you'll have less than a pot-size bet left on the river and it sounds like V is pretty much always shoving if you check to him.

Your hand can only beat a bluff, and you're betting your whole stack that V is bluffing in this one particular spot. You don't know what his 3-bet calling range is, but it's not unreasonable to assume 54, 22, 33, AA and Ax are all in there. If he's actually a fish rather than just super-aggressive, factor in x2 as well.

"He may be tilting a bit" and "probably has a wild/aggressive image of me" sound like attempts to justify to yourself that you're ahead. V raised, called a 3-bet, called another bet on an ace-high flop and then fired big enough at the turn to set up an all-in on the river. It's a terrible spot and I think you have to grit your teeth and fold.

Call turn.

Not spew. Now check call all river cards. For those of you advocating fold, at what point are you going to defend your blinds against aggro position players? When you pick up KK? Yes, we can steal blinds back with position raises, but at some point we need to 3-bet light a guy who is raising every button. Bleeding off $7 per orbit adds up really fast. As long as hero is BRed for the game and can deal with variance, hero has played this hand well, and should call a river shove from V.

Can't believe nobody has mentioned this yet,

check flop.

The problem starts with, "I have a TAG image" and "a player will remember I was a spewtard on one hand several days ago." I believe the tight image is the likely one and he has you on Ax. Easy fold to the bet.

From the looks of these hands, I'd say villain is owning you. He pot controls with trips. You say he has a fold button. So after he calls your 3bet pre and your c bet. His range is looking pretty strong. I'd fold, bc calling means we're almost always calling the river bet and that's something I'm not willing to do

There are two types of 3-betting light.

1) 3-betting as a bluff/semi-bluff. We 3-bet vs. a light opener with a hand that figures to be way behind any range he calls a 3-bet with, but may occasionally make a big hand and net some big $ when it hits if the 3-bet is called.

2) Opening up your 3-betting range for value vs. a light opener. We 3-bet a wider range than normal that figures to be ahead of his range when we're called.

Which type of light 3-betting do you want to do against this V description, and which category does A4o fall into?

As played, I'm never betting this flop. Why do you think he's floating an A high board? Sure, it's possible, but when he calls the flop I give him credit for something. 3-bet pots lead to typically straightforward play. I'm never excited about the 3-bet being called and am more or less done with the hand even on this board. Check/call on the flop is OK but probably folding if he keeps firing.

On the turn I like a bet better than a check call. A check/call only gets value from his floats that he then tries to steal with. If he does have air, are you prepared to call the inevitable river shove? If so, then check/call is fine. But I'm going to bet this out, and not give him a free look at the river. And it only loses me one more bet. Because if he calls the turn I'm check/folding any non-5 river.

As for the 3-bet, I've seen worse, but this is not the hand to do it with. You can definitely start defending and 3-betting with a wider range, but A4o is the ultimate RIO hand here, because you are thoroughly crushed when he calls and he has position. I would rather 3-bet 45o here.

i really don't think this is to bad with slight improvements, ur 3 bet size to small, do to your hand strength as well as ur gonna be oop, maybe 4x it there an u get a lot of folds. Next u id prob bet a littler smaller on flop the ace is a card u should have a lot of time when ur 3 bettins or atleast ssnl they will presume u have it. Im gonna bet the turn as well as soon as u check u know hes gonna bet. But id bet small maybe 20 more than first cbet or maybe even same amount. But since hes aggressive I think 20 more is a good amount so u don't get bluff raised. I play a little online most of the guys will float a flop an hope u check turn an pounce when the seek weakness. At the same time u have an easy fold on turn when u bet n get raised

This is a much better tournament play rather than cash game play....should be folding this out of the blinds in cash IMO. You have an inflated pot, OOP with A rag offsuit. This is one of those spots where you should be exercising some pot control rather than trying to build a pot OOP. Classic example of fancy play syndrome...

Results:

River:8 Check-check. I had to show first, showed my hand and he mucked.

Two reasons to 3bet basically. For value or as a bluff. Here, it completely reasonable to widen your 3betting range against an opponent opening a wide range. However, which hands to include in your 3betting range (A4s vs kj for example) I think depends on how this villain responds to 3bets. If he calls often then you want to 3bet with your hands like kj and just fold a4s. however, if he folds a high enough percentage (espeically if he is just 4bet/fold most of the time) then I think it is fine to 3bet as a bluf a4s type hands. These are hands that you would normally fold to his raise when you are oop, but by 3betting you are gaining value from them. Plus, you have a blocker and usually have okay equity if called.

So, if your image includes villain usually calling 3bets then I think you should fold this type of hand. and just 3bet for value hands like kq aj a10 etc. But, assuming he does fold a decent amount of time to 3bets, then I think it is fine. That being said, I would expect villain to flat the vast majority of the time against your 3bet here because even if he actually thinks you have a strong range here, he will probably think that he has huge implied odds because people probably don't fold often to him because of his image, so he might think you will pay him off if he hits. Therefore, I think it's probably a fold pre.

That being said, as played, I think the flop bet is fine. I think you would bet this flop with your whole 3betting range. I think he is loose and probably knows this. He sounds like the type of person who will both call light and float you. Therefore, I like to bet here. I don't give his flop call that much credit and expect to have the best hand a good percentage of the time here. However, I also don't like betting turn. i think by betting turn your range is too strong and he will fold most of what you beat. I think by checking here you induce bluffs from his floats and he could bet medium pairs although I'd expect those to check back usually. On river, you could bet again if he checked turn because I'd expect him to usually have medium strenght hands here (on turn, he would bluff if that was his plan. if he had strong hand he would probably bet as well. so checking depolarizes hand i think). If he checks back turn, I think you should bet/fold river (fold river to a raise because I have yet to meet the person who bluff/raises river any significant percentage of the time).

As played, I like calling flop. I hate raising because you really knock out all his bluffs and strong hands. I don't like folding because of what I said above and I basically think you're well ahead of his range. I think his bet here is usually polarizing. I also think medium aces check back turn. So, I'd say big aces+ or bluffs normally. So, I'd tank call to look like you are bluff catching but thought about folding (which is true basically). and then check/call rivers.

Makes sense but what if no one 3-bet him before?

Then I would assume that he probably calls a lot of 3bets. I think that is the default for most players at these stakes. He justifies it usually by thinking he will get paid a ton if his 36s, etc. hits.

Grunch:

Against the described player, the 3bet is spew. I know from experience.

The thing about guys like this that you describe is, yes, they raise a ton, but they also know they're doing it. And they expect that you will 3bet them. And they will call a lot.

So this guy could easily have AQ, AJ, maybe even AT, or perhaps even a suited ace with a worse kicker. Or, like you said, he could be floating. Honestly, I don't know which it is, and neither do you. It's a tough spot.

The way to avoid this tough spot is just to let him take it preflop.

Now that I've read the responses:

Actually, no it doesn't. If you play 3 orbits per hour, you've lost $21 folding your blinds (unless you pick up an actual playable hand in the blinds, which is allowed to happen). In a 2/5 game, $21 is a pittance compared to what we should expect to win by sticking with playable hands.

60 pre
bet turn
as played obv call turn, why else would you check unless to bluffcatch?

now that you have c/c turn, c/c any river

yay someone who plays likke me

pre is bad, A4o is a bad hand to include in a 3b range here. if you think he is actually opening 70%+ then calling is fine as long as bb is pretty tight/bad.

as played check the flop, as played obv call turn and river. the only reason to bet the flop is because you specifically believe he will float this flop a ton and then fire turn and river, so you actually are able to utilize this hand as a bluffcatcher later by betting the flop.