5/10 $25 button straddle

LJ is a young Asian male, about 6 months away form being a doctor. Very solid player, playing appropriate ranges. Always in for Max, always matching biggest stack. Not afraid to play big pots or call light.

HJ is a player that hero has minimal experience with. White male between 27-35, seems comfortable playing 200-300 bb+stacks. Only played with him 1 other time, but I knows he has a lot of online experience.

Hero is button with A4hh, about $5550. Effective stack is $3000

9 handed,
1 MP limp $25
LJ makes it $125 (5k)
HJ calls $125(3k)
Hero raises $475
MP folds
LJ folds
HJ flats

Thoughts on this raise? How often flat vs raise?

Flop ($1100)
732r
HJ checks
Hero bets $400
HJ calls

Thoughts on bet and bet sizing?

Turn ($1900)
7326r

HJ checks
Action on hero. HJ 2k behind. Bet small, check, shove?

I like the 3 bet with As wheels. I don't flat with A4s ever. Preflop I raise bigger to $550ish. Flop I bet $800, Turn I am all in.

We have poled out our range perfectly and still have outs (7) to improve if he calls with like 88-TT.

Pre I like 3 betting with the dead money in between. If it was a straight open and was folded to us I'd 3bet/flat 50-50. I would go $550 though.

I'd go around the same on the flop.

I would shove the turn at this SPR. We should be able to get all of his A high flop floats to fold.

I like the 3bet, but it could be a little bigger. AP, I think the flop bet is too small. I'd go at least $600, which makes a turn shove much better if that's the route you take.

I like a shove on the turn, but AP at this depth it looks kind of bluffy, and I'd love to know more about the player.

AP, with effective stacks, a $900 - $1,000 bet might be best. It looks as if we are going for value and lets him know we are committing his stack.

I don't understand the need to go bigger on the flop. I would play value the same way.

Doesn't belong in LLSNL for multiple reasons.

You're not wrong. I looked at the bigger stakes forums and didn't see much posting going on there. Decided to post here... Mods can delete if needed

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Preflop I imagine it's a pure fold assuming "proper" ranges but I've played a lot of live poker and 3bet > call > fold in practice most likely.

Flop our preferred bet size has to be big here, I'm betting ~80% and calling vs a jam. This hand likely a very high freq bet, if not a pure bet, but the suits do matter.

As played turn again the suits matter - especially after betting flop small - as we don't want to block his bdnf floats (because those will fold vs a turn jam), in other words we want the A4s no flop bdfd to go all in and the rest prob want to mix, mostly jamming. It really depends on how you're playing flop but I'm all in and gl to him with his 88-JJ. I don't think bet small is too much of a thing here with 1 SPR, especially in practice where ranges preflop will resemble more of a traditional BTN v HJ 3bet pot instead of a "proper" limp, iso, cold call, 3bet, call ranges lol

Nice post Jarrett. Can’t you roll like some low 30% amount of 3bs? I think this deep with this hand is getting vpiped somewhat often? But idk
Also why do we like the big sizing otf? This confused me. I’d guess that we can probably bet everything for the small size here and this strategy gonna play well instead of trying to build a x range with all these other hands that we have

Well when I say "proper" ranges pre I'm talking about someone who was playing a good balanced open-limping strategy that was uncapped, followed by the proper iso response (which essentially would be a 3betting range) followed by a cold call to that range, and now it's on us in essentially a very deep cold 4bet spot. However in practice these ranges are gonna be so far from that model that it makes no sense to start our assumptions there and instead assume the LJ is opening a similar range to a LJ RFI and normal HJ flat which makes A4s never a fold.

As for the flop size it's really a crap shoot to "actually know" because the preflop ranges I have don't play any calls in this spot as LJ (ignoring the limp) but if we assume calling range to be basically the LJ's normal response to a BTN 3bet (which for live games isn't that crazy of an assumption) and we assume our range is the same as our normal 3bet squeezing range then the highest EV one bet size out of 25, 33, 50, 66, 80, allin is 50 so I was off with the huge bet.

I'm all for simplifying when available but the point here is that we can't bet our range no matter how small we bet, checking back 58% of the time even if we bet 1/4. All that being said the EV difference is low between all sizes for what I checked but the 1/2 bet and check is easier to play than the 1/4 and check as the check and betting ranges become much more defined.

Interestingly enough, A4s is a pure check back if I give it 1/2 and bet as it can't call vs the jam and has tonnes of equity. Wouldn't have guessed that!

Anyways that's a pretty long write up/a lot of sims for a non spot where we can't even define preflop ranges!

Preflop 3-bet maybe 60%, fold 40% depending on how much table is 3-betting and how they're being responded to. V doesn't know you so maybe will take your 3-bet more serious as many players just don't have 3-bet bluff range. I would go bigger with the raise. As played, on the flop there aren't that many better hands that we can make fold. Maybe AJ or even AQ but less likely with A blocker, original raiser also could have had an A. If you're going to try to fold out 8's-10's it's going to take multiple barrels to do it. Likely has a draw or small pair (which could now be a set) that plays well multiway and called preflop because of pot odds. He doesn't know you so maybe will take 3-bet more serious and if you're going to try to get him off a small overpair you need to start on the flop and bet pretty big with intention to continue on later streets. I don't know what he's folding for $400 as he's getting 3.75-1 and what hands don't get that equity against your range even OOP? I think nothing you aren't already beating by a lot. I think a check on the flop is actually okay unless you're playing strategy where you bet small with 100% of your range on the flop here. If you're going to continue with the bluff then commit to it knowing that it's probably going to take your whole stack to bluff him off his hand. On the turn you're likely way ahead or way behind. I still think sets are in his range and I don't think he's folding his small overpairs but maybe so I think check is okay.

Nice post