Hi there,

a scene from a small local casino tournament.

The hand took part in the early beginning of the tournament, Blinds 200/400, not even near the bubble. Villain, bald man in his 60-ies, has showed very strange hands on showdown and caught bluffing quite freqúently, even on dangerous boards. He was somewhat of a weaker player.

To the scene, Blinds 200/400, effective stack around 35000

I pick up AJ UTG and raise to 1200. Folds to Villain in MP who raise to 4000, folds, I call.

Flop
K 8 3

I check, Villain goes all-in

Is this a call or fold? There was a big discussion afterwards in the break, i insisted a .... was a clear thing. but there was that small chinese man, who told me my descion was a big fault a the spot itself was a no brainer

What are your thaughts?

I probably would have open shoved all-in given it seems you had less than 10bb.

And I definitely would fold to the villian's all-in as you have no pair, no draw.

Even if the Villain is insane, you can't call here. You would be calling 31k to win 8k. Just take the loss of 11% of your stack and move on. If this guy is shoving 31k to win 8k you just have to wait for your spot.

Also, with around 90bb I think your preflop play is pretty standard. I would call the 3-bet too, too much equity and not a huge dent in your stack even if you have to throw it away when you miss - I also LOVE AJs vs this guy with how you described his play. I don't know if you are new to poker or not, but I used to always think 3x was the way to go with preflop opens. I've found that I like 2.5x better, saves you a small amount but over time it adds up. I despise min-raising in deep situations. Just my 2c.

For some reason, my brain read 200/400 as 2000/4000 and even though you used the words effective stack I figured you did not have much more so that is why I thought you had about 10bb left.

Blinds may have only been 200/400, but it is still a fold.

I am a bit more conservative. With AJs, I don't proceed past the flop unless a J is the high card, I flop two pair or trips, or a flush draw. Against a wet board, where I missed completely, I snap fold this.

Preflop, I fold to most three betters with AJs (it is a hand that can get very expensive and still lose). Against this guy, if you honestly think you are way ahead of his range, you should 4 bet.

Given my stacksize, though, I would just fold pre and wait for a better spot.

Not trying to be rude or anything but this logic isn't great.

Also, based on OPs post it makes sense to fold this pre only if we know villain is stationy and doesn't 3bet a lot otherwise AJs should do well against this players range as described.

I think I open smaller here. Something like 1,000-1,050 vs 1200.

Folding after the flop is super standard here OP. You have no pair & no draw.

I don't take it as rude, but can you clarify which portion of my logic is weak?

so, um, if you are considering calling it off for your tournament life for 90bb, 3x pot overshove with no pair and no draw - what hands are you folding?

I should re-iterate that I was referring to your hand analysis of AJ as a whole rather than situation dependent.

It's much better to analyze each hand/event independently based on reads of the villain in question rather than thinking:

"I have AJs and these are my pre-requisites for continuing"

With that type of logic it will be hard to make money in poker because in today's game reads/tendencies/etc are a large part of decision making especially as you play higher.

The rest of your logic was sound but we should use our abilities to piece together the story that Villain is telling and then make the best decisions and adjust accordingly.

fold before the flop both times. definitely fold on the flop