PokerStars - 30/60 Ante 8 NL - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: 194.32 BB (VPIP: 71.43, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 7)
BB: 50.55 BB (VPIP: 28.57, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 7)
UTG: 57.48 BB (VPIP: 28.57, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 7)
UTG+1: 111.73 BB (VPIP: 28.57, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 7)
MP: 68.27 BB (VPIP: 42.86, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 7)
Hero (MP+1): 88.73 BB
MP+2: 39.38 BB (VPIP: 71.43, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 7)
CO: 126.65 BB (VPIP: 14.29, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 7)
BTN: 79.93 BB (VPIP: 14.29, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 7)

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.7 BB) Hero has A J

UTG raises to 2 BB, fold, MP calls 2 BB, Hero calls 2 BB, fold, fold, fold, SB calls 1.5 BB, BB calls 1 BB

Flop: (11.2 BB, 5 players) 3 K A
SB checks, BB checks, UTG checks, MP checks, Hero bets 4 BB, fold, fold, UTG calls 4 BB, fold

Turn: (19.2 BB, 2 players) 8
UTG checks, Hero checks

River: (19.2 BB, 2 players) 7
UTG bets 7 BB, Hero calls 7 BB


I wanted to fold pre, but felt my hand was too strong to just throw away here?
How would you play this hand?

sure you can call pre and allday call on river

almost 90 BB and you would fold to a minraise UTG and 1 limper?

i would rather raise to see where i am than fold with AJo

Squeeze or fold pre, you really don't want to play AJo against 5 opponents.

Ah yeah didn't notice it was a minraise, should've made it like 5BB? 6BB?
But isn't villain folding pretty much anything we beat then?

Maybe, but it's still better to avoid getting stuck in a multiway pot with AJ. Besides, if he's opening UTG he can still have lots of hands in his range he'll want to see a flop with. It's still risky, because his range could be strong (which is why folding isn't terrible), but I would rather manage my risk with AJ. And the best way to manage risk with AJ is to avoid multiway pots.

This.

On the river has no natural bluffs. The only question is whether he'd value bet a worse ace for this sizing. I guess he could so calling is ok but v any chunky sizing in would be a trivial fold.

And when that 90BB goes in you're never good at small stakes with anything less than a boat.

bet turn fold pre.

Bet bigger on the flop. I would think most of Villain's Aces are AK for flopped top two, or weak Aces that want to pot control. Sucks when he has AK, but if we're value betting we want to get more value so if any weaker A or K calls us (and in this instance maybe UTG has a pocket pair like TT-QQ) we want to size up because they're likely calling no matter what (perhaps not TT-QQ but there's not many of those). I would posit that Villain c-bets AQ here almost always for value so we can safely remove it from his range.

I would likely bet AJ here on the turn as well and then check back the river. If I get raised on the turn I would consider a fold, seems like we aren't beating any of his value and there aren't many reasonable bluffs. I would probably size down the turn as we now have more potential of pushing weaker hands out of the pot by going too big and giving our opponents a chance to play perfectly against us. We can bet half to maybe 1/3 pot and extract the value we need. It's possible betting small induces a raise from our opponents but i'm not sure that would be too prevalent.

As you played it I call river. It's a small bet and maybe villain has a worse A and is trying to go for value against a K. Hard to say. He could just have AK and value bet you but there's only 6 combos of that so I would feel pretty safe.

I'm ok with a squeeze pre. I probably don't fold pre nor do I like squeezing with an offsuit AJ, but it's kinda a crappy position overall. I don't think there's a definitive "correct" play here. Using removal and fold equity for a 3 bet seems reasonable so maybe pump it to 10 bb's and fold to any aggression. When we squeeze we need to squeeze big imo, removing our villain's ability to call and forcing a 4 bet or fold situation. I don't think i'd size much higher than 10 bb's but I don't know that i'd go much lower. When we only raise to 8 bb's and he has to call 6 bb's to win 14 we're giving him too much equity.

Exactly, you don't want to play multiway with AJo with this depth. Either 3bet/fold or simply fold in my opinion.

Never raise "to see where you are." While raising can often help you define villain's range, that's a beneficial side effect of raising not the goal. The goal of raising should always be to maximize your ev.

so if the majority would fold AJo here with such deep stacks, which Hands call here and which 3bet?

I'd most often 3bet AQ and AK here, even more so when suited.
Hands like 22-TT could be calls.
Same for 65s - KQs and maybe some gappers?
Axs might be a call too?

I think playing the AJo here and flopping an A puts me behind a better A way more often than it puts me ahaid of something else.
Could still be fine with all the times we win when a J flops. But we're winning small pots with most of those flops.
While we're losing bigger pots when an A flops, most of the time.

I think I'd rather have folded it pre.