Live hand played a few days ago. I think this a correct fold, but please let me know your thoughts.

1/2 NL

Hero late 20s white male. Plays very snug and hasn't shown down a loser in quite a while ($800)

Villain is a 2/5 regular who sometimes takes shots at 5/10. He moved to our table about 30 minutes ago and has mentioned a few times that he was coolered a few times today and stuck about 1k. He is a solid LAG who understands positioning. I've seen him squeeze play once or twice in the last half hour and he relentlessly punishes limpers with 20-27 dollar raises. He opens quite wide I've seen him open k6s from MP as well as A3o from the hijack. ($300)

2 limps to Villain who is in the Hijack. Villain raises to 20. 1 fold to Hero on the button who looks down at AQo. Hero thinks for a few seconds and the 3!'s to 65. All fold to Villain who thinks for about 20 seconds and then ships it for the additional $280. Hero folds.

Thoughts?

Good fold.

It's fine. Just curious, what would you have done w/ TT, JJ or QQ? Would you have called with AK?

I probably would have mucked them all to be honest, I don't think anyone 4 bets light in these games. Even Lags.

BTW, by "it's fine" I mean I could go either way. If you are really that tight and he could be making a play, I might call if I feel like gambling. From some of the hands you've mentioned, you could be ahead.

From what you described, he's not your average 1/2 player or your average LAG, but I'm fine with the fold. Don't think I would have folded AK, but I do like to gamble.

Good 3! against a wide opening range. Flatting and playing AQ OOP against a LAG would suck. Good fold to the shove. You're flipping at best.

FWIW, given dynamics, I call JJ+ and AK in this situation. He's a bit tilty, prob thinks he can push the table around a bit, and may not really understand how tight 1/2 3-bet ranges usually are.

it was a good 3bet and a good fold in the long run, even if he showed you ace little off suite.

We're actually on the button. There is probably some merit to flatting this player in a spot like this. For one, by raising we are squeezing out all the fish. For 2, can we reasonably expect to get value from worse? That being said, playing this hand post flop without initiative vs a skilled lag definitely makes this a much more difficult hand to play.

It's hard to say really. If he had insta put it all in then I would probably call him wider but the fact that he thought about his decision for a bit is concerning. The main dynamic I would be interested in is whether or not anyone has been 3-betting him preflop. If not, then his line is super strong as I would expect him to give credit to someone finally 3-betting him.

Fold pre to the 20.

Edit: Just read description. Folding to the 4-bet jam is marginal. Terrible 3-bet if you're going to fold to a 4-bet. Folding AK/TT-QQ is terrible. You might as well have 32o here. The only thing good about your hand is you have blockers to AA/QQ.

You're getting 65+65+235+5 / 235 on your money = 130+240 / 235 = 370/235 = 1.575 to 1 = 38.84% equity needed

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 30.635% 29.66% 00.98% 219373536 7235166.00 { AQo }
Hand 1: 69.365% 68.39% 00.98% 505871460 7235166.00 { TT+, AKs, AKo }


equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 36.559% 28.36% 08.20% 332182848 96004986.00 { AQo }
Hand 1: 63.441% 55.24% 08.20% 647023116 96004986.00 { 88+, AQs+, AQo+ }

Hand 0: 43.078% 36.38% 06.70% 560565996 103290990.00 { AQo }
Hand 1: 56.922% 50.22% 06.70% 773925624 103290990.00 { 77+, AJs+, AJo+ }


Honestly, prefer to call preflop here (unless I feel comfortable getting 300 in here).

Villain has not been 3!'d prior to this hand. This is also the first hand he's seen me play aside from completing in the SB. Sorry I didn't include that info in the OP as its obviously pretty relevant.

My bad, for some reason I read that as us being in the blinds. Still OK with the 3-bet, but no longer against flatting, which would also be fine.

All things considered Nh

Lot of leveling going on, it looks like.

For one thing, it's not clear to me why someone who plays LAG in a game higher than 1/2 won't show up with utter trash. You have to think about the fact that he could very easily be thinking, "This guy has been watching me raise big since I sat down. Is he 3betting me because he has a hand or because he has position and expects me to fold? Probably the second one--I should re-bluff!"

When I 3bet a LAG for the first time and the LAG doesn't know me, quite often he calls or 4bets light because he thinks I'm tilt-raising him. A lot of LAGs' biggest weakness is leveling themselves into believing their style of play is affecting the rest of the table. You should seriously consider that this is a bluff.

However, just because it could be a bluff doesn't mean you should call. There's so much stuff in his range that you're behind, some of it way behind, you may have to just let him bluff you. But what I'm getting at is, both your options--calling or folding--aren't great. So really you should consider that you made a mistake by 3betting and you could have just called preflop (or even folded).

I don't like flatting since we miss most flops and an OOP LAG will fire cbets at most of them. OP didn't sound like the type of player who will float or bluff raise post flop but I don't think there is a dynamic where we need to go that route. I would rather 3bet to take control of the hand now, since we know he is light and opening with a wide range.

I am also not folding, but folding is better than flatting hoping and praying to hit the flop.

I think you're underestimating the amount of times we hit the flop + the flop is favorable for our hand. It has to be close to 50%+ (considering we hit a pair 1/3rd of the time and I'd say a large % that pair is going to be top pair).

Whoever said I am calling with the intention of always folding when I don't improve?

A $20 raise over 2 limpers is quite large for 1/2. I think flatting is better than 3betting. As played it's a fold.

This is more true for the Villain than us. The Villain is out-of-position in a heads-up pot, we should not be surprised that he doesn't have a calling range in this spot. Then the question is whether he shoves his entire range or folds some of his bluffs to a 3-bet. And the answer is: I wouldn't be surprised to see him shoving his whole range.

I think in this spot it's a mistake for us to 3-bet and then fold unless we are bluffing.

He plays 2/5 & 5/10. If he only played 1/2 then I would agree.

the OP described himself as snug but yes the only way I would flat it would be to play creative post flop

When a Villain is not likely to be flatting a 3b very often, 4b/folding a strong hand is a total waste of that hand. (I imagine a "solid LAG who understands positioning" would rarely flat our 3b.) If we want to punish a light opening range in this situation, we don't have to cannibalize our calling range; we can turn hands just barely not good enough to call with into light 3b. AQ is way ahead of Villain's opening range, but that doesn't end the discussion; we need to think about what he does with that range when we call or 3b.

That is, we shouldn't pose this question as: "I 3b because obv, then I got 4b and don't know what to do." Have a debate between {3b/f, 3b/c, call, fold} BEFORE the first action. I'm flatting this Villain and stationing him on a lot of runouts.

I can't wrap my brain around this thinking. I mean if we just flat then fold to the cbet because we missed, we lose $20, but if we 3! and fold because we missed, we lose allot more.

As a rule, I hate 3-betting AK/AQ precisely because it bloats the pot and obliges us to a huge cbet when we miss (which is most of the time). If we 3! then check the flop, we might as well just tell them what we have.

If I 3bet I am not "checking the flop"

Also hating to 3bet AK/AQ because it "bloats the pot" is bad thinking. That is what a fish might say.

Against this Villian, I like the flat, we have position and we keep his weaker hands in, if we 3b, we could get him to lay down something we have dominated, once we 3b tho we should have already made that decision before hand, if he 4b what's our line, in this hand, OP looks like he didn't think that before his 3b.

I also don't really agree with the 3b bloating the pot comment, that's not the issue here, I think the mistake was made before we acted by not having a plan in place.