5/5 Stakes, 8-handed
Hero stack is roughly $1,000, covered by Villain who has roughly $3,500


Villain has no specific reads, is the big stack at the table by far. Hero's image is likely tight passive.


Hero is UTG+1 with AQ


Villain is in the UTG straddle for $10, Hero raises to $35. Folds to the Villain who 3-bets to $135, Hero calls. Heads-up to the flop


Flop:

A 9 2


Villain checks, Hero bets $175. Villain calls, heads-up to the turn.


Turn:

5


Villain now leads for $200.


Hero?

I would check back flop. We can get all the money in on turn and river, we hate getting check raised and we can pot control for now. He has plenty of AK in his narrow range.

As played call turn and play river.

Fold pre

Pre: can fold pre, calling not terrible
Flop: prefer checking back flop here, you're not looking to get all the $$ in w/your hand, it's just not strong enough. If you want to bet this should be a small bet somewhere around $90 would be better. Big bet isn't good here b/c your either pretty comforably ahead of KK/QQ or way behind AA/AK.
Turn: I probably just lay it down. You're repping Ax and he just DGAFs so what are you ahead of? Just a weird spot for a bluff and you don't beat any of his value.

jam he's probably got KK w/ diamonds

and

Should we really fold AQo to a 3 bet, HU, in position and closing the action ?
Genuine question.
I understand it's the straddle 3-betting an open from UTG, but still.

Preflop seems standard to me, but open to discussion (see previous post).

OTF, agree with other posters that you sized it too big, and the best option is probably to check back.
V should not have many FD here, possibly only KQdd.
It is true that 1010-KK with one diamond is calling also a big bet, but on the other hand AA and AK have us crushed, and AxQd is free-rolling.

AP, 1010-KK with 1 diamond might lead this turn and, given the price, I am probably calling, although not really happy.

You should have a bunch of reads on the players with the by far biggest stack at your table. Does "no reads" mean you weren't paying any attention or has the villain been tight passive over the last couple of orbits. If this was the first couple of hands you played, should should fold pf. Just play it straight. If he's 3betting light, you'll know soon.

I've been in this spot a couple of times holding AQo. One time villain had AQo (i folded pre, he showed), the other time Villain had AKo, I lost like $500 just calling him down. So folding pre is not terribad. If you are determined to call you need to exercise extreme caution though, you basically have a bluff catcher from the moment you're in. Do not bet this flop, there's nothing V is going to continue with thats good for you. If he's loose enough to 3bet JTdd or something then you're going to face very tough decisions when that check raise comes in.

Fold pre, 4b bluffing is also a possibility, but I wouldn't do it because his 3b looks so strong. People don't 3b bluff/light from BB/straddle in general, as it's much more intuitive and easy to just flat those hands. This combined with your image and the fact you opened UTG makes it very likely you're up against something like JJ/QQ+ and AK. So your hand is in a very bad shape pre.

AP for the same reason I don't think you have as much value on the flop as your bet size suggests and turn is very close, I don't have a strong preference between calling and folding.

How long have you been playing him? It would be very useful to know what kind of guy we're facing here. If you've been playing for at least an hour, you being unable to at least guess if he's a pro who wants to cover the table or a splashy fish/lagtard who managed to run it up is a serious leak.

Pre we can go with all three options. Given our tight image I would lean call or fold.

Flop is a clear bet for me. We have a strong A and can get value from a weaker A and pairs below with a small bet probably third pot. We have some worse AX we can check to protect range.

Turn looks a lot like he wants to set his own price with a hand like KKdx or even AJxd. Most of the replies are assuming that he is a aware of our image and that he doesn’t get ool. Both of those assumptions can be wrong. V very rarely has a flush here in this line. Sure his A5s bluffs just got there but once we flop strong top pair at 50bb effective we are in no fold territory. Your big flop bet has isolated him to some strong hands but we can’t fold and calling allows him to often realize cheaply. I would jam.

Preflop call is standard.

Flop, if you're going to bet, bet smaller. We don't need to make large bets here to get stacks in by river. And larger bets force him higher into his range.

Checking is also fine.



His turn donk......just isn't really a thing. I'm either calling or jamming here. Without a diamond, I'd lean towards calling. With a diamond, I'd lean towards a jam as we still have good equity and outs if we get called and are currently beat.


We are only worried that he checked flop with AA, AK with a diamond, or some other FDFD like A5dd. All of these are unlikely, but not impossible.

This is a really gross spot. We have bloated the pot on flop with a middling hand. Now we are in the blender.

Turn: Pot is ~650. What are V's 200 leads here? Really strange. His flushes are pretty nutted given preflop action. I think V uses more polar sizing with his 99 and AA.

I agree with ssmalzz that we are repping TPGK+ on flop and V DGAF. His 200 turn leads should be ahead of our TPGK. Maybe he has KdK and he's block-betting, but it's 3 combos versus all the value he can have here AP. Perhaps he can have AxJd or AxQd. But I think these are better bluff-catchers for him and I can't see how a good player would lead with them.

H has PSB behind. If we jam we offer V 2-1. V plays perfectly from there, calling with his sets and flushes, folding his KdK and folding his AxJd. Maybe he calls off his AxQd and certainly calls his AxKd.

Yes, we get a great price to call turn, but we cannot improve (Qd probably no good) and will certainly face river aggression. I find a fold here and if he has the rare AxJd/Qd, I kick myself for bloating the pot.

I think both options are probably pretty similar EV wise. His 3 betting range in this configuration (UTG vs Straddle HU) should be super snug and have us either crushed or flipping. I don't mind a call or fold here and I think either play is fine

I think calling pre is honestly
pretty bad unless we think this villain 3bets more widely than expected from this configuration. I’d expect the vast majority of villain’s range to have us dominated and then he might have JJ and AQs too. Our hand has RIO.

Not sure what I was thinking in earlier post.


This is a fold preflop against normal ranges.

Call