I’m normally not a fan of threads that start with a disclaimer, but just so no one can say they were misled I will disclose up front that I am not the Hero in this hand. I just thought this was an interesting spot from Hero’s perspective and was curious how people think he should have played it. This is from a $2/$5, $500 max buyin game.

Hero (BB, $1,200): Early 30's reg, image should be tight, almost nitty, although if anyone is paying attention Hero has shown down a couple of marginal hands after raising preflop. About 30 minutes ago Hero flopped bottom set OOP on a KQ5 board, checked to the preflop raiser, and it checked through. Turn paired the Q, Hero bet $50, preflop raiser makes it $100, Hero calls. River is a 7, Hero check/calls $125 and wins against the preflop raiser’s AQ.

V1 (BTN, $700): MAWG reg, standard ABC tight passive player.

V2 (SB, $650): Mid 30's white guy, not a regular in this card room and generally unknown to Hero. Seems like a competent TAG, not playing a lot of hands preflop but fairly aggressive post. V2 had the AQ in the hand history where Hero had turned 5's full.

On to the hand:
Whole table folds around to V1, who opens to $25 from the BTN. V2 calls from the SB, Hero looks down at QQ and 3bets to $75. V1 folds fairly quickly, V2 tanks for about 10 seconds and raises to $225. Hero tanks for over a minute, and finally calls.

Flop ($475): T43
V2 leads out for $285, leaving himself a little less than $150 behind. Hero ???

I'm folding to the 4-bet with the reads given. With a better sense of whether V2 is able to have AK in his range for this line, I might 5-bet AI. Only flatting if I think there's a lot of AK and that V1 will auto c-bet often/big enough to make up for the FE of the shove option.

AP, always getting it in, but the commitment was made pre-flop on any board we have an overpair on, and without more reads, I would never have made that commitment.

Either shove or fold pre. Calling leaves us in an impossible situation OTF unless we flop a Q.

I fold to the 4 bet preflop. The flat/raise to 1/3 of stacks means hero is playing for stacks post flop. Without a better read on villain I'm not doing that with QQ. V2 will have more AA/KK here then you might expect because he knows this is never going more then 3 way to flop. At the same time, he has less AK-/JJ- when he 4 bets preflop. If he wanted to put the pressure on with those hands he would have made a 3 bet himself.

Garick is right that having called preflop can't fold on this flop. A villain who will 4 bet AK/JJ preflop will also c-bet this flop.

In my experience back raises are more likely to be AA/KK or Ax, where X is a weak to medium card, or middle to low PPs. I really wouldn't expect too much AK/AQ in a back raising range, but obv YMMV

Didn't see the previous hand history. If he's even a little sophisticated, he could be reacting to your perceived squeeze with a range you crush. For that reason calling pf is pretty sexy. Kinda skeptical he's going for a backraise with AA/KK with only BB to act, and if his original plan was to slowplay (which, prob not), its weird that he would change gears and 4b.

Like everyone else said, folding not an option with this line, especially on this flop.

Didn't even realize BTN opened, V2 was SB and we're BB. That really changes the whole dynamic.

Pretty much shoving all the time here pre.

If he wants to throw in 1/2 his stack and fold, I'll gladly take the variance free money.

Even if he's super wide here, still don't feel like calling and hoping for a flop with no A or K on it + that he cbet bluffs all Q- high boards

I generally agree, but the AXs and low-medium PPs thing is usually in a multi-way pot in response to a raise that the V thinks is a steal. This one was a decent V flatting a tight V2's button raise. I find basically no cheese in V's range.

Ahh, you found the issue as I was typing it up.

Unless SB had some kind of physical read on BB, or BB has history making squeeze moves from the BB and SB knows this, then QQ is way ahead here.

Given this, I like the flat pre and shoving the flop.

Did you look at your cards before SB acted? This is important. If SB looked down at a monster, and noticed that you were strong/waiting to 3!, then he could have flatted with AA/KK. If you didn't look at your hand until after he acted, then I would shove and feel pretty good about it.

are you V2?

The problem with a "I'm not the Hero" HH is you don't know what Hero is thinking. Unless you would have played the pf exactly like the Hero, your opinions are useless. Hero played the previous hand pretty badly, so there is that to consider.

As played, the SPR is under one and Hero has an over pair. He made the decision to stack off on the flop when he called the 4 bet pf. Just get it in. If he's even thinking about folding to a bet with an over pair on the flop, he should have folded pf.

Probably best not to answer this because if you say you are, I'll lock the thread. Reverse HHs are against the rules.

i dont think im ever folding qq pf blind vs blind for 130bb without strong reads. i'd shove pre here. only calling if we've got history and i know he's super wide

Why are reverse HH against the rules?

This info, and more, can be found in the posting rules.

I played a very similar hand. I was SB. Bb squeezed with qq. I 4 bet

Reason was simple: 3-b pre was almost always getting a fold from button. So flat pre.
Then vs bb squeeze im not gonna check-guess. Plus the squeeze indivates at least a stronger range than button original open.

Thanks for the responses, everyone.

Results: Hero and V2 got it in on the flop. The board ran out (T43)56, V2 flipped over 65 which was an OESD+BDFD on the flop and backed into two pair on the river to take down the pot.

Really don't like the flat. We're guessing on the flop. ~35% of the time we have to c/f because an A or K comes OTF. If we're gonna commit, gotta stick it in pre.

The 3-bet pre looks sqeezy/bluffy and the SB may be picking up on this. However, I'm worried about the flop bet sizing that the SB led with. He put in 2/3 of his remaining stack. If he's bluffing, why wouldn't he just jam to increase his fold equity?

At this point I don't think I can fold here, probably just sticking it in. The move pre is either to jam or fold TBH.

Probably a level. Crappy Vs routinely leave a little behind to avoid going all in and lose their customer when they have strong hands.

Hell, you even said you're worried about it but you just can't fold.

Wow, that's so dirty.

nh