CO is a reg at 5/T (pro I believe). I almost has never played with him in no limit. He wears a long-sleeved jacket with a hoodie covering almost the entire face, except for the mouth part.
Before the hand we played several pots. He either folded flop or turn on SRP. One 3BP he opened to 25 and I 3B him to 75. He called quickly and folded fast on 873hh flop against my 80 cbet.
UTG limps. CO iso to 30. I 3B at SB to 100. Folded CO who said in low voice "allin" in an noisy room and the dealer has to confirm with him before announcing "allin". I?
I tank and try to talk to him but he is deadly serious without any response.
How do you know V is a pro? What is hero’s image to V? Would he assume you’re a regular loose passive? I would assume a pro pays more attention to you than you to him.
If he doesn't have AA or KK, you're getting odds to call. That said, he's been folding to your aggression. This is one of those cases where I follow Doyle Brunson's advice that you push people until they fight back. Then you let them win one. Fold and let him win one.
My experience with grinders hiding their heads in hoodies speaking softly is that they rarely make big bluffs against unknowns. His range is tilted more towards AA and KK than JJ and AQs. I snap fold.
How do you know V is a pro? What is hero’s image to V? Would he assume you’re a regular loose passive? I would assume a pro pays more attention to you than you to him.
I played with him in games other than NLHE before for quite some time. I guess my image is tightish and passive. But I doubt he knows much of my play in NLHE. He almost always sits in games bigger than 2/5 unless there is no game there.
vs cutoff it's an easy call unless they are the type of fish that only 4bet AA. As you described this player I'd snap call and against most component players from these respective positions and stack sizes it's trivial call.
I'd call giving him a tange of AKo, AKs. QQ+, 50% JJ. But I would be going larger on a 3b out of position. At least 120 and I like 4.5x so 135. Then you have a little better odds to call, although you go bigger more to give him worse odds to call your initial 3b since you are out of position.
If v did have AA here he should be more likely to make a smaller 4b like 200-225, but you are shallow enough that jamming AA isn't that crazy. Still, it is something to consider. A lot of times things like this push AKs to still be a call while AKo might be a fold. The extra few equity % makes a difference, plus unblocking AKs is helpful if he might do this more with AKs than AKo. Although if you 3bet bigger AKo becomes more of a call. Because you 3b so small, you might call AKs and fold AKo.
Speaking softly, particularly "allin", is a tell of strength. At lowish stakes, 3!s tend to have a strong range. I would let this go. It might be a call at higher stakes or in a tournament.
This is 2-5 and you have AKs and roughly 100bb ... would need reads to fold. Esp. so given that you've 3bet before.
It is weird that he shoved when he's two to your right and this is the 2/9 times he's IP.
Maybe your 2-5 is playing more like 1-2 and you can find a fold.
Either way I'd be at least as concerned about betting slightly more than half pot IP on 873hh in a 3BP.
When someone says "allin" in a voice that is hard to hear, unless there is a chance he is deliberately doing it as a reverse tell, it is a pretty strong tell. He also should not be doing this much with anything AK is ahead of.
I'm a bit sus about the quiet all in, esp. from a "pro" in a hoodie ... but w/e maybe it's a huge live tell thing and we should massively deviate due to it.
But, let me put it another way...
SB vs. CO open _correct_ strategy is doing a 4x 3bet:
pure: KQs/KJs/ATs+
close to pure: AQo
over 50% frequency: A9s/QTs/J9s/T9s/65s/99/A5s/...
A 33%-50% frequency: A8s/KTs/K9s/T8s/KQo/66-88/A4s/98s/...
...then it randomly does it a bit with ATo/A7s/... and a bit less with AJo/Q9s/76s/A3s/... etc.
Assuming you try to follow anything close to that, then AKs is the nuts part of your range and you need a good reason to be folding it.
Maybe people can argue we should be a bit tighter due to the limper and treat it as SB vs. HJ or even SB vs. MP, which is still mixing 3bets with K9s/QTs/A5-A3s/etc. but also you should be 50/50 calling/folding J9s now etc.
But AKs is still pretty much the nuts.
Also, in theory, V shouldn't shove anything so when "the pro" does we probably fold some of our calls to a "normal" 4bet size.
But AKs is still pretty much the nuts.
If you are only 3betting like JJ+/AK ... then, sure, fold everything apart from KK+ I guess, how bad could it be.
I would just snap call here. The fact that this hand is played against a pro who normally plays bigger makes me want to call more, not less. We are getting the right price against a tight range of QQ+ AK. So if you add in anything else (JJ, TT, AQ, A5s) or if you discount AA due to the huge 4bet size, all of a sudden it is an easy call.
Kind of weird that he doesn't ask for a count pre here. $675 is a weird amount to have. If you have less than $500 it's easy to see, and if you have greater than $1000, it's also easy. When you are in between, I would expect a player to need a count before making a decision in a significant pre-flop spot like this.
I don't see anything to suggest he's really that great of a player or a pro to begin with, he just seems like a phishreg the way he was described. I would save the 575 and not even worry about it too much. I don't think he's bluffing with AQ, and we're still a dog even if he has TT-QQ.
Kind of weird that he doesn't ask for a count pre here. $675 is a weird amount to have. If you have less than $500 it's easy to see, and if you have greater than $1000, it's also easy. When you are in between, I would expect a player to need a count before making a decision in a significant pre-flop spot like this.
My chips were neatly stacked and he sit very close to me.
