Wasn't sure what to do in this situation. 1/2, very fishy table, lots of limped pots, lots of show downs and players getting all in with Ax hands, etc.

I have 150$, villain to my right has recently joined the table, has me covered, I know nothing about him but he is young, composed, and appears to be a reasonably solid player. He's limped in a few hands getting great odds and saw some cheap flops, folding on the flop. I have recently folded to raises on the flop and pre flop after opening/c-betting, and people may think they can push me around, which adds a disagreable element to the table dynamics for me.

I pick up JJ in early position, and make it 15. One pretty fishy player calls in the CO, Villain 3 bets to 30 from the button and blinds fold. The fish, I believe, will call if I just call, but will likely fold if I 4bet.

I found this to be a tricky spot. If I call, then the fish calls, the pot is 90, I'll have 120 behind, and any reasonable bet will be pot commiting. Furthermore, I really have trouble interpreting min 3 bets against opponents who are not clearly fish. Is it a suck bet? Do they think I won't realize that I'm getting good odds to call, and will fold out most hands because someone raised me? If I 4bet and get called I feel I'm behind villains range.

Deeper stacked this would be an easy call for me, but as it is, with such limited information, the best plan I could think of would be to call the bet, hope for a flop without an A or K, and either lead out or c/shove. I just really didn't like this situation, did not have confidence in how to play it, what would you're response have been here?

3 bets in general at 1/2 games is heavily weighted towards monsters like QQ+, with a huge percentage of it being KK and AA.

I always start out from that point on when entering new games and new villains and take it from there until i get reads, hands being showdown,getting a grip on the table dynamics and so on.

So in this case i would opt to fold as you have very limited reads (if anyone at all) on this new player 3 bet tendencies and his actual 3 bet range. Youre a solid dog against the average 1/2 villains 3 bet range and you are cleary not deep enough to setmine.

After i fold i would observe this villain particularly in future hands so you would have more reads to work with if you face a similar situation/spot against him later on in the game. If you want to learn more about his 3 bet capability and his 3 bet range look for:

1) How often is he 3 betting? 1 time an orbit, 2 or 3 times an orbit? 1 time an hour or does he rarely 3 bets at all?

2) Does it looks like he can 3 bet squeeze after an open raise and some callers in between?

3) If a 3 bet pot goes to showdown make sure you notice the hands and use that information to create a range in your head.

That goes for the whole table of course: when not in hands observe everything that happens and create profiles in your head for every player alongside some basic ranges like stackoffthresholds and 3 bet ranges. Be like a lion in the wild jungle: using all your senses to suck in all information that surrounds you. It will very likely payoff huge in future situations.

In general with no more information this is a fold.

Surely we can set mine?

No fold here. For $15 more I would see a flop. I would have folded to a bigger reraise but not $15 more.

Plus if you call you think you have another caller which will help if you flop a J.

If you miss flop you can fold.

You are betting $15 to have a $90 pot (if the other player calls).

If you hit trip, do you think it will be easier to get your remaining $120 in by the river? I do!

Personally with your stack I would have limped pre and set mine.

We can always set mine. In this case, it will be -EV to do so.

I'll add like everyone else that most people don't 3bet light EP raises, so it is a fold.

Assuming the field caller calls as well we are getting an immediate 5-1 with 120 behind

I agree. I wouldn't always be putting Villain on QQ+. There are other hands in Villains range, AJs+ AQo+ 88, 99, 1010 can easily be there too.

Probably not deep enough, although we are getting a great price. If flop comes T63 are we check/calling check/folding check/shoving?

I'm not a huge fan of 4-betting all in with JJ in a 1-2NL game because we often aren't ahead. But in this case I might shove, the near min 3-bet on the button seems like weakness. I would probably just shove because I don't want to play a flop oop with JJ if all undercards come because if the flop comes Txx and V c-bets we are out in a ****ty spot playing with a marginal hand fairly short stacked.

Really? Because just about everytime I've ever seen the min 3-bet live it's Aces.

Set mining makes no sense here. Either fold or shove, if you think there's any FE to be had. Or if you're feeling gambooly.

Few villains I play against will 3-bet a $15 raise to around $45 so I think this villain probably thinks his $30 reraise is much bigger than it really is. Villain probably thinks he made a big raise but doesn't want to raise much more because of a fear that everyone might fold.

Tearful fold. We don't have the right odds to set mine. I would assume a min 3-bet at low stakes means QQ+/AKs until proven otherwise.

Who was it that said there are just three ways to play JJ, and all of them are wrong?

Every old guy I've ever played with.

*post-script** Maybe there's a thread out there somewhere about min 3bets and how to interpret them? **

Here's the thing, and part of why I ****ing hate min 3-bets from villains who I don't have much experience playing with. The villain in question, whether or not he is very good at poker, is obviously very intelligent, is well put together, and is comfortable at the table. He either thinks that I, myself, will think it's bigger than it is and will fold, or he is afraid if he makes a bigger raise I and the other will fold.

They way it played out, I didn't think it through, snap-called the raise, folded K high flop to his c-bet. I agree with whoever said it was a "tearful fold". I hate folding here, but in general I'll have to spend some time thinking about the different reasons different kinds of villains will make a min 3bet preflop. I should have just asked him after the hand what he had lol, though he didn't seem the type to give away the info for free.

Raise smaller preflop next time.

im not folding for another 15, esp with 1 behind likely to call. pretty sure with 1 behind likely to call we are not -EV here.