Late night 2/5 - 30 mins till close of the card room.

Hero - My image doesn't really matter as V has only been at the table 10 mins

V - Pretty bad lag. People call him the ATM and he is well aware of this. He's only been at the table for 10 mins and the first hand he raised UTG and fired the flop and turn. River went check. He had J8s for a busted flush draw on flop. Ace high took it down.

Effective stacks are $500 - Playing 7 handed

V raises to $35 in EP and hero calls in MP with TT and one of the blinds comes along.

Flop is A97 rainbow. Blind checks, V bets $85. I notice the blind is done with the hand so I call.

Turn is a 4 - brings 2 spades V goes all in. Hero?

I obviously know that I'm only beating a bluff at this point but I know he can have almost anything here.

Thoughts? Should I have raised pre? I didn't want to raise flop because he's calling with everything that beats me and folding everything else and I wanted to let him have the chance to continue to bluff.

i am folding here pretty fast. it looks like you have an ace. he is still betting. and he is EP. and you called flop with player behind you. so unless this bad lag saw that the blind was uninterested figures you saw that he was uninterested and is therefor making a light peal with a bluff catcher such that he can barrel you off it on the turn is a bit of a stretch. just fold move on to next hand.

Man that looks suspicious. I'm not one to make a habit of bluff catching but with players like this idk. Do you have any previous reads on what V does when he does have the goods? I mean why is he going nuts here?

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Is the ace of spades on the board? If the As is not, then I think you have to fold because he can easily have ace-rag spades and be making a semi-bluff figuring he has outs even if he is beat. If the As is on the board this is harder because now your ahead of his semibluffs and the shove is overly aggressive if he actually has the ace. Do you know how fast he plays draws? How hard does he push TPWK with AX? Does he over bet A9/97 here?

I would mostly be making my decision on the flop though. Against highly aggressive LAGs you need to decide on flop if you think your ahead or not and stick with it, calling one or two bets and then giving up will bleed money to a hyperlag who will double and triple barrel air. And yes, raise pre. TT is ahead (and likely way ahead) of his range but a very fragile hand.

Did he react much when he lost the J8s hand? Or just shrug and continue looking for the waitress, watching tv, small talk with his neighbor, etc?

I lean towards a fold but would be more apt to call if it's the latter.

Y didn't we 3bet pre?

I would prolly 3bet pre vs a lag

It was the latter.

Meh....Not sure was thinking of doing it but wanted to keep his weaker hands in.


Results...

He had AK. I played with him the other night and after watching him play I think it was the right call.

Normally bad LAGs don't try to rep an Ace right out of the gate because their villains' calling ranges often have Ax...

not to say Bad LAGs don't try to rep an Ace, they do ,but moreso as a scare card on later streets...

as played, I would actually put the LAG on some garbage two pair hand since the LAG should put you on Ax and if he puts you on Ax he isn't trying to bluff you off the one hand that no one can fold to a LAG (i.e. Ax) so in this case, this is actually a bad situation to bluff catch him with....

I'd rather you bluff catch him in this spot on a Q 9 4 2 board since that is a board a lag will feel comfortable barreling into since the calling ranges of his opponents are going to be Ax heavy...

make sense...

basically, if he reads you for Ax and is barreling into you, odds are he can beat Ax which makes bluff catching this spot no bueno

Lastly, I don't mind flatting the TT and keeping in his wide range so he can barrel multiple streets. that's fine. I could go either way on 3-betting pre or just flatting. I'd be more likely to 3-bet pre if there were multiple villains and potentially dead money in the pot... Actually, you are in MP he is in EP... yeah, I'm probably 3-betting this pre because if we flat odds are we are picking up stragglers and TT is a horrible hand to play for value multiway when there is a known spewtard in the pot. Raising to iso the spewtard in this spot is the more optimal +EV play