I’m a MAWG reg 2-5 and live mtt player. Playing higher at 5-10 with optional 20 live straddle a few nights back on a public holiday with many rec players and some local regs.

I’ve run well for past three hours. AK>AJ trapping rec llsnl check back on Axx then ai riv, QQ > JJ aipf early for 6k pot, full value with 77 on A72r etc.

Player straddles 20.

UTG Awful MAWG rec player V1 (2000) limps 20, has back raised twice to date but is typically being iso’d cc pre then cf or station worse post. In for 4k-ish currently on 2k.

V2 (3500) makes predictable iso to 80. Aggressive winning reg. Had 3! then called off against v small stack jam with A6s and I suspect ranges remain this wide.

Hero (11000) in $5 SB flats AKo

V3 in $10BB (5000) raises to 325. New YWG reg who I know is being coached by another winning HS reg. His raise seems predictable with wide range given gameflow and knows what V2 is up to. has three bet me three times recently. On the third occasion I raised BTN he 3! from SB, I 4! A9o 620 he folds I show.

V1 folds

V2 calls

Hero raises to 1550

V3 jams 5k quickly.

V2 folds

I call, blocking KK +

Thoughts on action?

I've never played this high but here's my 2c anyway

This is a pretty interesting hand deep stacked. Do you normally have a flatting range from the SB? I'm assuming you flat to keep the awful rec in? If I'm villian it looks like a great spot for a squeeze. If I'm in his shoes your backraise is confusing. Has villian seen you trap QQ+? That's what makes this hand interesting to me because if he's smart and ballsy I could totally see him making a move here. And you basically have to call his jam given this action imo.

Given the previous hand where you showed A9o (I wouldn’t have done that, but you seem to know what you’re doing) I don’t think there’s any way you can fold to his jam here. Calling is correct at that point.
I’m a little surprised that you didn’t 3! yourself in the SB and then chose to 4!.
Other than that and the fact that you’re very deep in a huge game, this all seems pretty standard. I would imagine you’re up against JJ/QQ, unless you got unlucky and you ran into KK+ despite your blockers.
Edit: oh yeah, or one of the other AK combos of course.
Very interesting pre action. I’m curious what would have been different (if anything) if you 3! yourself.

OP, you play much higher than me but do you commit/flip for 250bb at these levels with AK? On a call?

How does young V3 do this with a worse A?

In general, I’d stack off as the raiser on a read but this is far beyond $1500 at a decent 2/5 game. I’m willing to hear your thoughts for sure.

We flatting because BB will be 3! light or very wide for value here. We showed a 4! bluff vs v and have a dynamic. Looks like a slam dunk call off to me. Hopefully he thinks we are capped here and is choosing this spot to blast off. No way I am folding here after we backraise 4!. Did we choose to flat instead of 3! this spot for this specific purpose? I would probably rather just 3! myself unless I knew bb will be 3! in spots like this and getting way too far out of line.

the limp reraise with AK from the SB makes the play from there on in difficult to evaluate because your range looks so weird.

your image becomes really important. your play is FPS but how do you look to villain here?

I don't play this high either but I don't understand the flat from the SB. The relative worst position post really bothers me. You imply that perhaps this was because you predicted the BB 3!. I'd rather be trapping with AA, or KK since I'm OOP and deep if I felt like there was a raise behind but maybe I'm just a nit. If this is the case you got what you wanted and I cant see how a fold is justified even after he jams. If we 3! instead and the BB cold 4!s with action behind I would think his range is much stronger. But given our 4! bluff earlier and our weird line here AP I don't think we can get away. Curious to hear how it played out.

V just coached or coached+staked? Anyways you got out of line here pre calling when the dynamics are way too good to pass up a 4b. Once the kid ships you’re pretty dead if he’s staked - close to a fold. The backraise line is bad - save a small frequency w KK that is obv strong enough to get in and might benefit from unblocking Ax hands that 4b you.

I don’t play this big. But I’m not calling off 5000 American dollars out of position with AKo.

Stripping out all the fancy play and meta hand considerations, this is the proposition at hand.

Levels might demand that you do at times, but not loving it here when KK+ is still in there half the time at 100% frequency and the flip/chop/spaz portion of Vs range is just never there at the same clip. This isn't a flip spot call off IMO even with the dead money though I'd imagine it can't be too bad math wise with a BI of dead money in the pot. Still, it's another 3500 after taking a subpar line to set up a backraise that wanted folds in the first place (or second place?).

Strat behind AK flat in SB was equally:

(i) trap any attempted backraises, especially from weak V1 who could spazz
(ii) avoid playing strong V2 at this depth OOP with a hand (like any other) that misses most flops

And to a lesser extent:

(iii) keep some stronger hands in SB flat range to give licence to float some smaller set mines, given flopped sets pay off huge in this table dynamic

Ofc everything above is open to analysis/critique and I welcome it hence the OP

This game is above my pay grade, but do you have any combos of AA in your range here? I don’t like calling unless you can also sometimes show up with the nuts.

I do get this, but I also think AK is an 'easy' hand to play oop. So if you raised to 130 and Villain 3 bet to 400, I think it's fine to play oop fit or fold playing relatively underrepped.

maybe I'm a pussy, but I'd rather do that, than limp rr because we can't fold once we start the hostilities and it ends up with us getting 250bb in in a spot we can't be super excited about.

I'd need a crazy good read of villain being super spewy to be happy with this.

As an aside, I do think this is a far better hand to post in MHFR.

I have played at these stakes but wouldn’t say I ‘play’ at them and everybody else’s POV is gonna have a least a small proportion of ‘omg 5k pre with AK????’ which probably colours any perspectives

First of all dont call AKo from the SB, you will make more money raising (imo dont call from the SB at all, but if you want to trap trap high paires if you expect V1 to spazz AKo won't do amazing vs a random range anyway).
Also vs a strong villain V2, you will want to play good and have a good 3-bet range. Only 3-betting QQ, KK and AA will be easy to exploit by a good villain.

You need to call 3450$ to win 10100$, so you will need atleast 34.15% to call, I would expect villain to call some of his aces, and JJ,QQ, Aks when you raise. And 5-bet all in AKo, (most) AA and KK given action. You will have 35.44% vs this range, which will make it a about break-even call. If you expect him to 5-bet all in any QQ or all AK including AKs call, if you would expect him to call some combos of AKo instead of 5-betting fold.

A new reg playing 250BB deep at a high stake game would most likely have a tighter range as all AKo, KK and AA and I would personally fold in this spot.

+1

Let's ignore the amount of the money and just look at the math. You need about 35% equity to call. Against QQ+, AK, you have 38%. So it comes down to whether he can do this with AK. If he can, you call. If he only does this with AA or KK, you fold.

On a more strategic level, you shouldn't be playing in this game unless you have a bankroll of $50,000+, or if you are rich enough to where losing $15,000 isn't a big deal. That's using the rule of thumb of never having more than 10% of your bankroll on the table at any time.

Guilty as charged.

But your point above about flatting the raise oop and playing it more straightforwardly is worth exploring more.

Unless Hero has some KK/Aa he would play this way, H is just leveling himself oop into a difficult scenario as he’s going to whiff a lot of flops. Venice’s point about raw equity is valid but we’re never realizing the full amount oop and flatting. For me WereBeer makes an excellent point hin this regard.

given how wide V probably ranges you pre, you are priced in. Call it off and ride the variance train.

Folding pre here would be LOL no good. Like this action is why we flatted AK pre, so lets go with it.

you realise calling from the sb doesn't stop you from playing deep oop correct? in fact it does the exact opposite of what you want it to. make it 400 pre and post becomes 10x easier in a pot with an spr of 4ish.

Honestly, I think it's fine. I would probably just 4bet myself, but I can get behind (i) above, especially after showing the A9.

I like reason (i) for the original flat, but I don't like reason (ii).

(I have played this high, but I do not do it regularly.)

How did you get QQ in vs JJ pre for 300bb?

If you play a seemingly loose game, people become far more willing to stack off for way more bb’s than in usual situations. The trick is getting it in ahead once you’ve established the loose image.

For example, last game I played there was a maniac player who 3! my open and I 4! shoved into him for slightly less than 200bb’s with A-Qo. And yes, he called me with A-10o.

That isn’t something that I would normally do, but in that situation it was correct.

Grunch:
This is such an obvious 3bet vs the iso raise. We can avoid going multiway, fold out a bunch of equity and get called by worse (dominated) hands at the same time, gain initiative, and build a pot with a hand that has great TPTK value as well as great blockers vs their continuing range when we whiff flops. I can't imagine many dynamics where i would flat>3bet for gameflow reasons, and the dynamics in the OP only suggest more reasons to 3bet imo.

AP, the backraise is ok ONLY if we are willing to stack off, which means V3 needs to be 5bet jamming with AQ or worse some non-zero % of the time. But that all seems like clear fancy play syndrome compared to just 3betting in the first place.

Hey OldSilver, I’m curious what happened here if you don’t mind posting results.