Ignition, $5 MTT

Vill was 30/15 over 20 hands

Ignition - 40/80 NL - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 105.67 BB (VPIP: 32.96, PFR: 8.21, 3Bet Preflop: 3.17, Hands: 888)
SB: 92.12 BB (VPIP: 30.45, PFR: 10.05, 3Bet Preflop: 4.91, Hands: 869)
BB: 125 BB (VPIP: 31.56, PFR: 10.95, 3Bet Preflop: 4.36, Hands: 850)
UTG: 128.5 BB (VPIP: 28.97, PFR: 7.88, 3Bet Preflop: 2.15, Hands: 859)
UTG+1: 115.49 BB (VPIP: 26.13, PFR: 8.74, 3Bet Preflop: 2.25, Hands: 868)
MP: 322.49 BB (VPIP: 31.98, PFR: 12.42, 3Bet Preflop: 4.05, Hands: 817)
MP+1: 129.4 BB (VPIP: 29.34, PFR: 8.94, 3Bet Preflop: 2.93, Hands: 690)
Hero (MP+2): 100.62 BB
CO: 122.2 BB (VPIP: 26.21, PFR: 8.42, 3Bet Preflop: 4.14, Hands: 395)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A A

fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 3 BB, fold, BTN calls 3 BB, fold, fold

Flop: (7.5 BB, 2 players) T 9 J
Hero bets 3.24 BB, BTN raises to 17.6 BB, Hero ???


This hands covers a lot of trouble spots for me: cbetting wet boards OOP; knowing when (and when not) to release overpairs; facing excepted raises after value-cbetting; vill's unorthodox raise sizing



How do you guys react to this flop raise?

Optimal play as we understand it would see the OOP player practically never cbet this pattern this deep. Knowing that, if I'm button here I'm going to mess with you light with any excuse for an equitable hand. Being recklessly cbet into brings out the goofball in me.

So its not a "safe" fold, one of the reasons you should be disinclined to bet. But go ahead and fold: You're in poor shape vs his value range, all his bluffs have decent to great equity, it's a big raise which is expensive and also means he's likely to keep betting even if bluffing, you're not gonna be able to hold on.

Might be better to take the defense approach with this as it'll be difficult to determine whether or not he's raising for value or a semi bluff. If the turn bricks you could try leading out into him and they play it from there if he raises your turn bet it's less likely he'd be doing with a draw at that point with only 1 card to come. Gross spot regardless but I don't think you can go broke here and still get to show down.

Sorry but I think you have to cb this board, starting with a check and navigating oop on a super wet board is a recipe for disaster.

That said the flop is a fold, KQ is unblocked by you and the board, hes showing up with this alot, as mentioned his value range has you crushed and his bluffs have good equity has like QJ,QT and combo f draws

There are so many hands in villain's range that can be raising you on this flop.
I would check this flop.
AP-I would fold to the raise.

This is definitely a c/c on the flop for me. Don't think betting is so terrible tho. For this sizing I think you can just fold. To a smaller sizing you can call and then play to see a turn.

I cbet this atleast half the time, being oop sucks but we still have a value hand, albeit not the greatest one for this board, two, for the guy that says he'll punish our c-bet, good luck with that. We have as many good hands in our range as the bb does, i.e. all sets, all straights, all overpairs, lots of good flush draw straight draw combos.
I would make all my bets bigger on the flop though, hoping to take it down in this spot, or in some cases, to build a pot that I can bomb on turn for value or charge draws, and to define his range. In this case, he says he hit the flop hard, and alas you have aces this time, not jj and kq.

Great, but button has position and many turn and river cards will change hand values. Good luck playing your straight when the 9 peels.

AA is not a value hand, the raise killed that. AA is now a 0EV bluffcatcher with few ways to improve. You may as well hold 77.

It's still a value hand until we get raised lol. I am betting because I don't want villain to take our check as a green light to start running over us, plus we do need to have some bet/fold hands to balance us. If you want to add 77 I'm ok with that.
We can still check/ fold really bad turns, and still bet/fold some, and check/call some too.

Hey , I agree totally with what you say, however being a $5 MTT on IG/BOV, what if the player just decided to watch the "big blind defend strategy" video on youtube and decided in that spot it was okay to X/R 98s??? like im stuck in these spots in the lower stakes of the game all the time?

Excellent hand choice.

98s (3 combos) has 51% equity against AA. That's the hand you want him to have.

If you think about it AA no spades may be the nut worst "value hand" (i.e. hand that can be conceivably bet for value) on this board. AJ, KJ, QJ, KK, QQ all have outs and/or blockers vs vills value raising range.

Pretty trivial fold when you put it like that.