I agree. It felt super nitty in the moment. That is why posted this thread right after the hand happened. It is negative EV play irrespective of what this V actually had in this particular situation.

I am not really a “gut” or “feel” type player. And I am not scared to get felted nor is $200 a significant amount of money to me. I, for whatever reason, felt like I was beat against his check raising range and I folded. This is emblematic of me ranging opponents too tightly and probably making large errors in these big spots.

when the spr is this shallow i dont think you need to worry about ranging him. its a simple enough heuristic to just understand that you're committed.

Once again, we return to the ongoing and endless debate between GTO and exploitative play. GTO says this is 100% call. Exploitative can find a fold.

No one would call you terrible for calling off with no reads, except that...a lot of reg grinders probably would, because his jam doesn't make a lot of sense with a worse hand. He's either:

1. Got a slow-played PP higher than yours.

2. Flopped a set or 2P.

3. On some sort of high-equity draw or pair + draw, like ATss, or maybe 54ss - less likely than the two scenarios above.

4. Blasting off with some random AT that isn't ATss - probably the least likely scenario, given that he can just flat call rather than jamming.

He's the Asian Phil Helmuth, over-betting with the nuts, thinking he's cute and trapping your over-pairs. Of course he's pissed when he tried to cooler you and you fold, just like Phil Helmuth.

Eff that guy. You saw through his ruse and made a disciplined fold.

Fun personal note - I coolered a guy EXACTLY like this in the first hand I played last night, at 1/3, while waiting for a 2/5 seat. Sat down and picked up 76s in the BB. He raised UTG, BTN calls, I call. Flop is 876tt.

Check, bet, fold, check-raise, biotch! He calls. He's on a short stack (because these guys are ALWAYS on a short stack), so I just jam when I boat up with a 7 on the turn. He tank-calls, and mucks when I show my hand, saying he had AKs, drawing to the nut flush, not expecting me to have a boat.

They open a new 2/5 table right after that. One of the guys I know from the 1/3 game I just left sits down next to me, and says, "well, that was the easiest $300 you ever made. What did he say to you, he didn't think you had a boat?"

"Yeah. I mean...when I x/r flop, I've either got a set or 2P. Only one of those combos ISN'T a boat on the turn, and I'm not jamming a counterfeited 2P, so WTF does he think I have when I rip it?"

Guess I should have had AQ.

IMHO, you should usually be calling off here, but it is a little close. The good thing is that you took a long time with your decision. The great thing is that you even tried to get more info from Villain through some observations during your tank.

Who cares about the final result? You sensed that this spot was close. I think that calling it off is +small EV in the long run, but that is small potatoes compared to the fact that you had the discipline to slow down and think for a long time for a significant big pot.