Played this hand a few weeks ago at the Encore and realized I was still thinking about it...

Main V is a MAWG, tattered Red Sox hat, glasses, and brought ~$700 from a broken game to our table about 20 minutes ago, so my guess is he's snug and winning but no real clue beyond that.

Other V (and main V seems competent to recognize all of the following...) is the main action at the table at the moment. He's a MAWG with his girlfriend/wife sitting behind him who sat down about 15 minutes ago, and has been playing about 70% of hands, none for a raise.

Main V raises to $12 in EMP, folds to me in SB, I call with AJo (I'd probably just muck if the SB wasn't attracting me into this pot...), BB calls.

Flop (~$30 after rake): J22

I check, BB checks, V bets $25, I call?, BB folds.

Turn (~$80): J22 [6] (I have the J)

I check, V bets $80, I call?

What's your plan on various rivers? Probably check in all cases and evaluate?

Fold pre to an unknown but probably snug and winning players EMP open. The fact that you've put in 1/12th of the bet already should not attract you into the pot. This is a bad hand to play OOP. If the open were later, I'd consider a 3-bet.

AP, flop is fine, but fold turn, imo. V has made two PSBs on a dry board, he can probably beat TPTK (or at worst tie it).

If we call OTT, I am c/f most rivers. Very few players are triple-barreling a dry paired board like this for big bets with air.

I think calling pre is ok here because of who is in the bb. I'd make a tight, exploitative fold on the turn. You just don't see this player type mash pot with worse very often at all.

Yeah, I hadn't paid much attention to V2. I guess I'm OK with the call pre after all. We should be looking to move to get position on V2, or at least not always be OOP to him, as well.

Yeah, I'd certainly rather have V2 to my right in general, but had about a dozen reasons I couldn't move, not least of which is that the game was solid.

Overall though, he was bad/obvious enough that I don't even know that I need position on him, he played any two suited and any face card, and had pretty readable paws in terms of what his next action was going to be.

And yeah, the $1 invested aspect of this hand had almost nothing to do with my call pre, basically I just feel like this is enough hand to play a three way pot with the fish and the (presumably snug, presumably decent) MAWG.

fold pre, fold turn when passive villain pots it. he's probably got the deuce and is scared of the flush coming.

AP, likely calling turn, might fold itm, then X/F river for the same reason Garick gave.

Pre - not a good hand to play to a raise OOP. If V is snug, fold, might consider a 3b at some freq.

Read is just that he's winning and maybe tight. He opened from early MP. Overpairs are more what we should be worried about, no one in this hand has a 2 in their range (BB probably but he folded flop).

Is it wrong that I like a call on turn more with QJs and JTs than AJ (if we have them here)? We're blocking Ahi barrels with this hand. Having Js is bad, having As would be really bad.

Correct as to the first part -- @PokerPlayingGamble, the only deuces possible are maaaybe an A2s or 22 more likely from me than villain. BB would've had a lot more deuces than either of us, but has folded on the flop.

I think I prefer to have AJ actually, I hear you about blocker effects but if V can have suited Jx of any sort then those are additional hands they could be playing for value that we beat. I think if I have QJ or JT I'm much more inclined to fold because I don't beat KJ/QJ myself.

Doesn't the 3b blow out the fish? Any merit to employing a wider-than-usual cold call range here, like maybe including hands like JJ and QQ, for that reason?

I wouldn't ascribe much to our read. If all we know is that he brought $700 from another game, he could just as easily be a massive whale. I am and will frequently have more than everyone at the table.

Anyways, fold pre. We flopped about as well as we are going to most times and still don't want to call two bets. If we *really* want to start exploiting things, how does BB respond to 3-bets? Some fish will call preflop with a hand they like for *any* amount, so it can be worthwhile to 3-bet wide in hopes of getting the hand heads up with a whale. I'd definitely be testing out a lighter/wider 3-bet range in this dynamic.

Once we call pre (which was a big mistake IMO), I'm calling flop and turn. I don't love it, but I'm also not convinced this guy is all that solid from our limited reads. Could easily have KJ here (my default read is that MAWG with a Red Sox hat *definitely* plays KJ from most positions).

x/evaluate river

TL;DR I need more evidence beyond a big stack to assume this guy is a thinking/good player.

Can I use this as a moment to share how much money I've lost with AJ OOP?

Not gonna lie, I would have called with AJ like 100% of the time preflop in this spot. Didn't realize it was such a big leak.

Note to self: Be wary of AJ

Exactly! As I’ve said before many times, AJ should have its own dedicated section ITF given how much trouble it causes for grinders.

That said, I don’t see much functional difference in this Scenario between JJ on a low board and AJ here. V reps overpair. Reaper makes an interesting point above about the Ace blocker. But the more important issue is our failure to 3b pre. If we’re playing this marginal hand in this marginal spot, we should be 3b.

Now we’re oop, lacking the initiative and guessing about an unknown V’s opening range. He could easily barrel twice at our preflop flatting range with Ak. He has 24 AK/Aq, 6 TT versus 16 overpairs that crush us. At 2-1 We’re getting the right price even at the bottom of our range. It’s probably a solver call,x/c river but it’s a gross spot.

Folding or 3 betting this from the SB. Calling raises from the blinds with weak offsuit broadways like KJ off or AJ off is pretty much -EV overall.

I think this one's run its course, so, results:

Would you have called a river barrel?

Tough to say, probably depends a ton on size. When I called the turn he seemed to not like it, which turned out to be honest after the fact, and he was uncomfortable thinking about whether to bet after I checked, so I was leaning towards "yes," but he let me off the hook.

Inserting. Personally, I hate flatting anything from the SB, except the occasional pocket pair or other great io hands when there's a clear reason to. I mainly just fold pre, with the occasional 3 bet.

AJos in the SB is a fold pre? Does everybody except for me get tons of awesome premium hands?

I have been playing poker wrong all this time.

When do we want to be playing a hand like AJos?

When we are in position for example, either when facing weak limpers or when we come in with an open.

Like i said: calling raises with weak offsuit broadways from the blinds is mostly losing money, even if it is a very common leak.

What % of hands should we be playing in a "standard" game?

Its hard to give a complete detailed answer to that cause it depends on several factors such as game conditions and who our opponents is in a certain hand. The best approach is to get a good grip on what your basic range should be from each position, and then let it flow naturally when you get in a game. At some tables you will play tighter than base range, some tables more hands.

But you should play very tight from the blinds as a general rule, especially the SB.

It's not about overall % necessarily, it's about how poorly many/most hands play from the blinds.

I'm a LAG/maniac who plays *way* too many hands overall. Like 40+% or even any two from the button, but even I have come around to easily 3bet/folding hands like AJo from the blinds. OOP, you either make a small amount when you're ahead or lose a lot when you're behind.

You mean the $1 you have invested? This is a fairly easy 3! assuming we’re 233 BB eff. with Main V. Folding is also probably more profitable than calling. We’re going to be dominated vs Main V a lot and this hand plays terribly OOP.

At least when we 3! we’re more likely to win the hand vs AK-AQ when you both miss or a hand like 88s that’s afraid of a few overs

Whoops, pretty serious typo there -- the BB is what's attracting me into this pot, and I don't want to blow them out with a 3!. Seemed like they were playing any two suited, any face, any connected-ish, so good for like 80-90 VPIP, but don't know how they'll react to a 3!.