Villain: (225$) I've seen him opening a decent ammount, if I had a guess I'd say 15-18% all for 10-15$ with no real correlation to hand strength that I can pick up on so far,
Hero: (175$) I have no idea what people think of me. I haven't shown down a hand yet.

Pre Flop:
1 fold
Villain: Raises to 12$
2 folds
Hero: Call from the HJ with AQo
Others fold

Flop: (24$)
AQ2
V: bets 20$
Hero: I this a call or raise spot?

If he's got AK I think that I'll need to raise at some point to get stacks in (if he's the type to stack off with TPTK). If he's got any pocket pair that's not QQ/AA (super unlikely) he's likely done with the hand regardless.
A spade on the turn might kill my action.
All good reasons for raising, but I feel like a flop raise only gets called by AK/AA/QQ A2 (unlikely) (maybe AJ) and folds out just about everything else.

Great spot to 3bet pre, raise pot on the flop.

i think 3betting pre is optimal, but not much wrong with a call in position i guess.

raise flop for the reasons you listed, unless he is barrel happy, but most of the time you should raise and hope for some setup/villain overplaying his hands

Flatting is good. Raise the flop for value. It will look weaker raising now on a drawy board than waiting til the turn.

If villain opens only premiums AND he's in EP, do you guys fold this pre? Just curious, because I do routinely. Obviously villain description makes 3 betting or flatting IP optimal, just a hypothetical question.

I think its important to build the pot up. If villain is raising a fair amount, JTss and KJss are in his range and we need to charge those hands, along with AJ/AK. Lets make a raise here. If he has AA or QQ, obviously thats a super cooler and due to a lack of combinations, thats rare. If villain has air here, he is probably going to shut down anyways after this cbet, so let's make a raise.

Raise/call $60

In a vacuum i would raise flop to 55. He wont fold an ace.

I would 3 bet or fold pre also depending on how i think he plays AK.

3b preflop, reraise to 50, since alot of turn cards can kill your action.

Would you be more inclined to 3 bet if you knew he would 4 bet AK ?

yes

i would 3 bet him all day if he likes to flat AK and play for flop. If he 4 bets AK then 3 betting a very early solid opener prolly wont be profitable with AQ. (Just depends if he opens that early with big cards --not just big pairs)

[QUOTE=Pay4Myschool;36230002]If villain opens only premiums AND he's in EP, do you guys fold this pre? Just curious, because I do routinely. Obviously villain description makes 3 betting or flatting IP optimal, just a hypothetical question.




depends on what premiums means.

If he opens only big pairs and AK, and 4 bets AK pre, and only occasionally shows up with KQs etc, then folding AQ is my vote.

If he opens AQ KQs AQs AK + big pairs AND does not 4 bet AK (just flats a 3 bet) then i would 3 bet the AQ.

I can spot him the best no pair hand here and crucify him postflop by 3 betting, however I cannot spot him a big pair.

If our villain has a faceup range from EP then fold > 3b > call. Flatting puts in a guessing game when we flop toppair so putting a 3b in preflop gives us the raisers intiative to get him to play more passively postflop.

Grunch.

If he is raising 15 to 18 percent of his hands then you need three-bet him with a hand like AQo. That hand is way too strong to be just flatting with, especially in a heads-up situation with position. I would re-raise to $45.

In short, your thoughts are correct. Your three-bet is for value. Your going to get called by much worse on average and thus where you will make your money. It is a really profitable situation.

As played, you really need to know his post-flop tendencies here. Is he going to fire multiple barrels into that board? If so, just smooth call and let him hang himself.

If he tends to shutdown post-flop, then you are going to have to go for gold with a large raise and hope he has AK/AJ/whatever he is willing to pay you off with.

yea

Why would 3b pre be optimal???

We have positional advantage vs V post flop where we have no history of 3b vs villain let alone shown down a hand. There's too much value in AQ to 3b here in our position.

As far as flop play I would never flat here. It's a raise 100%. There's spades on board and too many turn cards that would kill our action. Build the pot OTF so we can get the money in. Too many players worry about only gettin action from better in these spots....yet forgetting how fishy players can be and the goal is to win money. Raising here allows V to make a mistake while calling doesn't have a net monetary gain for the times we have equity that's ahead of Vs range.

And fold pf??? lol wow. AJ meh...yes, but AQ that's a fishy weak passive fold. Even if V is only raising lets say JJ+ and AJs+ pf....stove that range vs AQ....look at the equity and then add in your ability to have position vs V throughout the hand and I see a +EV situation.

Ok, so most people agree that raising the flop is the right play.
I guess that's why I flatted! (oops...)

Anyway:
Pre Flop:
1 fold
Villain: Raises to 12$
2 folds
Hero: Call from the HJ with AQo
Others fold

Flop: (24$)
AQ2
V: bets 20$
Hero calls

Turn: (62$)
10
Villain bets 20$
Hero raises: How much though?

That was my plan to do somewhere in the hand. Also, now if he's got A10, AK, or AJ, he's picked up some extra equity in the hand, and will certainly come along with more that I'm ahead of.
I'm never worried about him having KJ or 1010 here, just based on body language.
I'm left with a little bit of an awkward stack size. After I call his flop 20, and the turn 20, I've only got 122$, and the pot is 102$, seems a bit too big for a ship on the turn, but is it? Or is that a good stack size?

You can ship sometimes(ESP vs some players) -or- u can bet ~$85 OTT hope to get another street.

This is why you need to pay attention more to pot size and stack size. Helps you determine SPR(Stack to pot size ratio). Think of it this way...when you have a big hand for the most part you want to reduce SPR in order to get stacks in hopefully by the river. When you have a marginal hand you want to keep the PSR high and exploit SD value.

Seem like you're thought process when playing in a spot like this is focused more on what beats you rather than what you can get value from and the merits to raising and esp raise size. Betting and the size of your bets is your manipulation tool and learning to apply it I think will help with this hand and future hands you will play. GL

I dont think a 3 bet is optimal here at all. We havent showed down a hand that villain has seen. Essentially AQ will be the bottom of your range here, villain will probably put you on JJ+ and AQ+.

If you 3 bet you are never going to be able to bet any ACE board for value here profitably because in villains mind your range is just so tight. Your 3 bet will fold out any worse ace as well as hands like KQ or QJs that you have crushed.

Grunch.

Definitely raise the flop.

Even if he only calls with the hands you listed, that's a good chunk of his range here, and AK/AJ is 8x more likely than AA/QQ.

However, in reality he calling range is probably wider, since your range is pretty wide in this situation.

Weather or not you 3b PF depends on your reads on villians 3b calling range. If he is opening AJ, small-PP that c/f unless l hitting a set on flop, or hands like KQ and then calling a 3b I would def 3b in position here. Without reliable reads though I think flatting is fine, we are ahead of an opening range between 15-20% and have position.

If villian is not calling wit worse or hands he will play faceup and that we can own him on the flop with (small pps) then there is no point to 3b a hand as strong as AQ here imo.