Game is $2-$100 spread-limit. Blinds $1-$2, Max you can raise is $100 over the previous bet.

7-handed, I open AJo UTG to $8. Two calls. Button goes all-in for $58. Blinds fold.

Raise to $158, call, or fold?

Advise raising or folding. Depending dynamics of table might even just fold pre no open

Definitely folding unless he’s a maniac.

RESULT: I raise to $158. I decide that I’m almost certainly getting the right price with the $25 overlay, and if not, showing that I can go $158 preflop with AJo is gonna make up in table image whatever minor -EV the play is in isolation. But…….

……UTG2 cold-calls my $158 and he has $190 behind. *RECORD SCRATCH* Well this is not good at all! Everyone else folds. 3-ways to a flop, one all-in:

FLOP: J62r (pot: $340 total, $200 of which is a side-pot between me and UTG2)

I check, thinking that I’m never folding regardless, and this is the best way to get money out of him if I’m ahead (if he has 99 or AK). But he checks.

TURN: J62r Kr (pot: $340 total, $200 of which is a side-pot between me and UTG2) Well one of the hands I put him on just moved ahead of me. I think I’m checking to fold here now? Is that too nitty???

I check but he checks back. Wtf did this dude call me with? A mid pocket pair?

RIVER: J62 K Ar (pot: $340 total, $200 of which is a side-pot between me and UTG2)

Well now I just want to get SOME money out of him, so I bet $100, and….

….he raises all-in to $190. **** MY LIFE, I can literally never be good here—he’s always gonna have at worst AK—but god damn, there’s $630 out there and only $90 more to me and I have 2-pair, I can’t fold this, I call.

UTG2 tables p.

You got extremely lucky.

Next time, just fold AJo to the >7x jam.

Are we here to play poker, or are we just gambling?

I don’t know. I mean, UTG2 should obviously fold AQo to an UTG 4-bet to 80 BBs. And I think it’s pretty nitty to assume AJ is far enough behind a short-stack’s shoving range to lay it down with the dead money overlay.

You need around 37%. Most optimistic scenario is he does this with 88 and KQ and AJ and doesn’t do it with aces. What’s our equity against that range?

As a general rule at low stakes, especially 1/2 and 1/3, I'd rather get stacks in with a short stack if I have AK, AQs, or TT+. If the short stack is jamming AQo or worse Ax, or PP's under TT, and everyone folds, good for them.

More often than not, if someone is jamming >25bb's pre-flop over a raise, AJo and the like aren't going to be profitable calls. They're LOL-calls when we're deep stacked and don't care about doubling up the short stack because he's good for the game. But even then, we should only LOL-call when we're closing the action heads-up.

You had $8 invested in the pot. Calling is potentially torching another $58, and opening up your stack to a re-raise. At least you re-raised, to shut the dead money out, but you see what happened. Someone who was flatting you with a better Ax decided you were as FOS when you made it $158 as you were when you made it $8.

He could have been wrong. You could have had JJ+ or AK. In this case, he wasn't wrong. You had AJo, and he had you dominated with a better Ax. Why is he calling you with AQ here?

If you had AK, I'd say he was an idiot. But you had AJo, which makes me wonder if you're not playing in such a way that your opponents know you're opening way too wide and/or playing too loose/aggro post-flop.

Next time, have JJ+ or AK, so you can punish the doofus who double-flats you light, instead of potentially rewarding him for trying to trap you.