1/3 NL

BB...He's been agro pre. He seems to always defend his blind. I haven't seen him 3 bet yet in this scenario but he has outside the blinds. I have been raising a lot pre flop and taking down a lot of small pots. He is running badly and has called all in and lost twice since I've sat down. Both times he lost to a monster hand and didn't show. BB has 400 and I have 450.

I open in the CO with AdKd to 15. I had been using a 12 dollar open size. I decided to bet a bit bigger since the BB was defending so much. I probably could have opened 20. The BB raises to 60

Is this a 4 bet raise? Jam? Call?

I like to see a flop in these situations. 3bets in the games I play are usually big pairs JJ-AA so I like a call and play post flop.

Regarding preflop sizing, I'm a little torn. But if we're on a non-short stack (where we can't open to an amount to comfortably commit postflop), so long as the sizing sets up a playable SPR, I'm cool with a larger open if that is what our opponent is willing to call. But I'm perfectly fine with $15 here.

What has he shown up with with his 3bets?

This is one of the reasons I typically purposely sit on a short stack of $200. In that scenario it would be a very easy jam because people are much more willing to get in "just" $200 with a range that we are doing perfectly fine against (as well as even opening up the betting against these shorter stack sizes). But if we get in much larger $400, we're typically doing really bad (either flipping or destroyed and never destroying ourselves), and even the fact that he is cool opening up the betting with these larger stacks is a bit scary.

Awkward spot. Putting in a large 15% of our stack just to hope we hit an A/K or flop a great draw seems a little meh. But I guess it can't be horrible in position? Stacks seem too short to 4bet/fold. Honestly, if he hasn't shown anything crazy, I never think folding AK to a large 3bet for non-short stacks is too horrible.

ETA: But it really depends on how he is treating the situation. There's a crapload of opponents who simply 3bet nuttish only hands regardless of the configuration. Meanwhile, there's others that realize this is an open in the CO by someone who is raising a lot. So the more its the former, the more we can make a nitty fold. And the more its the latter, the more we should probably go with it.

GcluelessNLnoobG

Narrator: it is horrible.

I'd call unless you think 4betting could induce a spaz shove from a dominated hand (i.e. is this tilt?)
But honestly the 4x 3bet looks like s sober raise from a strong hand. We have position and will have an spr of 3 so the money can go in quickly if you flop well and he's too frustrated to give up.

$115 > jam >>> call >>>... fold

imo

I like 4 bet to $135 and call a shove.

4bet, I'm never flatting here vs a guy like that just to play fit or fold, he should be wide enough to justify it and if he folds, we just won 60 pre in 1/3 with ace high nuttin wrong wit that.

If you don’t 4bet AKs and end up winning at showdown, you lose some informational advantage. When the table sees you only call with AKs, you will be more transparent when you 4bet AA and KK. Obviously, when you do once-in-a-moon 4bet AA, it is a slim chance someone at this table will be there, let alone remember the hand. But the fundamentals of betting in poker are to play not just offense in the moment but defense for the future too.

It’s never wrong to go to war preflop with AKs since you’re basically flipping against 22-QQ and a one-third dog against KK. The only hand you fear is AA, and all statements about losing AKs to AA are cliché.

In this situation, I probably snap 4bet. But I suck staying cool with premium hands. I suggest instead pause, then bet.

From the cutoff this is a mandatory 4bet. Stack size is awkward. I think $125 makes sense, jam also makes sense. The worse the rake is the more I want to jam. Generally speaking I am more inclined to jam AKo and more inclined to 4bet AKs less than all in. Since you want to 4bet AA less than all in to bring him along more, AKs is great to balance that range out since you can call a 5bet jam and you have good playability postflop. You may want to jam KK/QQ here as well sometimes to balance jamming with AKo.

Normally I'd never advocate shoving AK vs typical small stakes players but I've been in this spot tons of times vs aggro tilters and been snap called all in by AQ/AJs, I'd just jam given your description of the villain.