The min-raise by the original raiser is interesting. I know some of you think it means AA or KK, but I'm of the opinion that it could very well show weakness and being unsure about an overpair. Say, 99-QQ. A hand that doesn't mind getting it all in against the shorter stack but still has to be careful about Hero.

I know that in this spot, if I have AA or KK, I'm flatting the donk bet in the hopes Hero comes along or, better yet, interprets my flat as weakness and raises. Afterall, on this board, we're certainly not afraid of Hero making 2-pair type hands on the turn when we have AA or KK.

So I'm leaning towards an overpair here that is NOT AA or KK. We can rule out AK because the line taken would be asinine with that hand.

Flat the $150.

Although, a sick move would be making it $225.

*Grunch
3bet pre, AP fold

Good points, which is why I tanked for so long during the hand and then decided to post it here. On the one hand you are right, his min-raise seems to indicate he wants me out but wants V1 in. On the other hand is he really doing this with hands like 99-TT? It doesn't seem that those hands are likely to get value from me, although he could have picked up on V1's tendencies to stack-off light and be trying to exploit that.

I will wait a little to see if anyone else has any thoughts/analysis then post results. I really appreciate people helping me think through the hand, especially those who took the time to provide thoughtful analysis vs. one-liners.

P.S. Not sure raising to $225 would be a 'sick move'. What would we be trying to accomplish with that? I kind of think we aren't committed vs. V2 given his range. The logic behind that is that given my read of him starting with a strong PF range and him being a tight TAG, I don't think he commits with a range against which it's +EV for me to stack off on the flop. If I am not committed, I am not putting in over 1/3rd of my stack, especially since the most likely scenario seems to be V1 will call and V2 will shove (or call and shove turn) since I can't imagine us having a lot of fold equity here... Am I wrong on that? I would estimate V2's commitment range on this flop to be JJ+. I doubt he has 88- in his PF range. 99 is a maybe. So we would only fold out TT and 99 if it's in his range for this line.

Is it beyond the realm of possibility that, according to Villain, we might actually have a hand like A3?

But yeah, reraising to $225 is fairly stupid...I'd just love to see villian's reaction to that!

While obviously we can never say 'never' in poker, if villain had a hand like A3 (suited or not), I would be willing to chew my own socks as that would mean all my reads were totally wrong. I don't like absolute statements in poker, so I am 99.9% sure he doesn't have a hand like that in this spot in his range.

No, I mean could WE have a hand like A3, in his eyes?

Ah. I doubt he thinks I am flatting pre-flop that wide, nor am I in this type of situation. My guess is my perceived range is something like 77-QQ, AJs, AQ+.

Results:

- I tank/folded
- V1 tank/folded and showed TT
- V2 scooped the pot. I asked him if he had KK/AA. He showed me AA as he mucked.

At first I was very happy with myself for losing $35 with QQ here vs. Much more. Then I started thinking about the hand trying to not focus on the fact that I ran into the top of his range but on whether or not I played the hand well given what I knew at the time, which is why I posted the hand. Thank you for all the thought/help.

For what it's worth, I think V2 screwed up with his flop raise. I asked him why he did it, and he said it was because he put both of us on lowerpairs and wanted to protect. I asked him if he was really protecting against a four-outter. He said yes, that it has happened before and that he would rather win now than get sucked out on. An example of how NOT to think IMO. He left a lot of EV on the table (I definetely call if he calls, and might call a small bet on a blank turn) for the sake of insuring against an unlikely outcome.

easy decisions=+ev