Situation.

I am in mid position.

The casino is playing with straddles from any position.

1/3 NL Game
LP - Straddle.
UTG - About $1200
UTG+1 is $140
UTG+3 Me $589

The player to my left is LAG.
UTG is very LAG (any two cards, any time).
UTG+1 has been bleeding chips.

I am in this game about 2 hours. Most players are playing a tighter game, but they are limping as much as possible to hit. It is not happening very often.

UTG is looking at the straddle ($6). He instantly pops to $40. His bets in this position have ranged from $21-40. He has shown very weak hands in this range.

UTG+1 calls. His play has been lackluster. Straightforward player.

Fold to me. I look and I have AA. I know there's roughly $90 in the pot. I make it $140, expecting UTG to call.

The player to my left thinks for a few and finally throws his hand away.

Folds to UTG. He calls. UTG+1 calls.

Flop is 10J3.
Pot is roughly 430.

UTG checks.

I think about this. Two suited are definitely in UTGs range. UTG+1 is all in.

As UTG could literally have anything from Ax to 23 or even 72, I am perplexed on what to do next..

What do you do to maximize your winnings with $409 left in your stack? Neither A was a .

i think pre you couldv made it a bit more to maximise here especially if he is as loose as you say. that makes your flop decision pretty easy in terms of bet sizing as well. a pre bet of 180-200 leaves you with roughly 350 and 600+ pot to the flop.

assuming from what you've written his calling range in this spot is mega wide, your not really folding over pairs to anything the flop so a shove would be maximising in that spot. there are arguments for allowing him to barrell turn since he is so LAG but with a range as wide as his, you don't want to allow him to catch up with some wierd 2 pair and more importantly you don't want to be put to a decision imo. he has a 1200 stack and it will be easy to put u to a tough decision where you will have to consider folding. at the same time that 1200 stack + his wide range and loose play will allow you to maxmise with a shove as he is likely to call you with any pair and any draw both of which are likely on that board and even against KQd your still 55%ish.

bet bigger pre, shove flop.

Raise more pre...shove the flop.

Your raise size pre is fine. You want action after all, and you got yourself an SPR of 1. Well done.

UTG may be LAG pre, but what's he like post? Some LAGs pre are more like TAGs post. Is he the type who will call you with BP thinking you have AK? Will he snap your shove with AJ/AT or will he fold?

Will he see a 1/2 PSB as an invitation to call with the T9, or will he see through that?

It all depends what your reads are on him post. The default would be to shove though because you have less than a PSB and he would be getting the right odds to call with a FD/OESD.

It would just suck to get tricky by betting $200 and having him call with KQ, only for you to hit your set OTT.

And a lot of the times when you shove in these spots, the first thing villains want to do is to nail you on having AK.

Unless I have the deck crippled, with an SPR of 1, my main concern is protecting the pot and I'm going AI.

The first hand I observed at the table, he had top pair with an open ended straight draw. The only player who had him covered went all in and after a couple agonizing moments, he finally folded. So, he can make a fold even when the pot is laying him decent odds. In this case, there was about 200 or so in the pot, he bet 100, and then folded to the RR of AI. The other player had the made straight.

I had also seen where for less money, he chased a gut shot straight draw and hit it on the river.

My thought process here was to protect my hand and rake the pot. I looked at the flop composition and didn't like what I saw. Too many ways to lose and there's not just one person in, but also the all in player.

Preflop, my raise was simply to get some money on the table but enough to discourage other people from entering. Interestingly enough, this table was psychotic and fun. I had seen $20 preflop raises take the blinds but I hadn't seen a preflop RR not get called.

The player to my left, with about $2000 on the table, had considered playing. And I had a good reason to fear him. Much like UTG, he was capable of playing any two cards from any position and using his table talk and stack to win the pot. Not to mention, he was damn lucky.

Anything less than an all in is inviting a lot of bad draws.

I pushed all in. UTG thought about it then folded. UTG+1 revealed KK. The river produced the possible straight by putting up a Q.

UTG said he would have hit the straight, but he had been lying all night. I never found out what he had. I raked the pot.

The player to my left suggested I check and let him stab on the turn. In this case, the decision to RR All In would might have netted me more money, but I don't know that he would have been able to fold with any more money in the pot with the odds I could lay.

As a side note, I had AA earlier against the same two players. And I was able to rake that pot. And against UTG, I had made a gutsy call with AQ when my Q hit on the turn. There was also a K and a pair on the board. UTG had bet 1/3 pot on the river and I made the call and took the pot. So, he was capable of many plays.

Fist pump the flop. I think the apparent "scariness" of this board is somewhat a phantom menace. J10 isn't in either players' ranges (or at least, it really shouldn't be); no other two-pair makes any sense, and 33 shouldn't be in their ranges either. The only 2 hands that beat you realistically are 1010 and JJ, and sets are hard to make. I'm happily shipping and fairly happy to be called; there are much more KQ, AK, AQ, AJ, QQ, KK, 88-99 broadway type of hands that can all be in their ranges, some of them call some of them don't, but all of which you have great equity over.

grunch

if villain really has atc as his range then with less than a PSB left i would just shove. Obv the flop hits the world but we are definitley ahead of that wide a range. I understand the pot is protected and we are shoving into a dry side but i think just about half the deck is a scare card on the turn so i think shove is best in this situation.

SPR less than 1, we have a one pair hand on a really wet board. I hate to be captain obvious, but just shove the flop.

i think the whole point of the thread is OP asking whether to:

1. do the obvious thing and just shove, or
2. build a side pot and attempt to bring UTG in for value

i don't think OP is worried about being in front.
raise pre to $140 is perfect imo. UTG+1 is AI regardless. do we really want to be pricing out UTG when holding AA? No way! We want him in this pot

there are several reasons to shove here (nice main pot already, only have a single pair at this point, wet flop, charge draws maximum amount, get hero calls from pp who read you for AK)

but there's also a few reasons to build a side pot. by raising to 140 pre, our plan was to bring UTG into the pot and extract max value from him. by shoving the flop, we may be losing substantial value.

shoving is the easy play, but is it the best play?

short answer yes. if V has a str or flush draw, Jx or Tx, QQ-KK then he may talk himself into calling a shove. you will have forced him into the wrong play and charged him the maximum penalty for doing so. and if he says that a Q makes a straight for him on the turn, you could almost believe him. AK fits the betting well PF and is definitely in his range, even with you guys holding AA & KK.

Cliff notes: the only extra range that u might entice by checking behind on the flop (or betting a smaller amount to entice action) is 99- and I doubt that it is worth allowing the QQ-KK, draws, Jx, Tx range infinite odds to improve, just to bring a few extra hands into the mix.

I AM DUMB

lol?

Shove the flop. With an SPR of 1 you are committed and will get called by worse.

We have an overpair HU (not including all-in guy) on a drawy board with an SPR of ~1.

I don't see how this can be anything other than a ship.

GcluelessNLnoobG

*Grunch
Easiest allin of all time.

i had to read post like 4 times

drag bar to end and click bet obv.