$0.50/1.00

Poker Bros.

5 handed

SB: $86.61
Villain (BB): $122.59
LJ: $217.47
CO: $51.24
Hero (BN): $110.00

Preflop:
LJ fold, CO fold, Hero raises to $3.50 with AQTA, SB fold, BB raises to $11.00, Hero calls.

Flop ($22.50): 286
BB bets $11.25, Hero calls.

Turn ($45): T
BB checks, Hero checks.

River ($45): 6
BB bets $30, Hero calls.



Believed this was a spot where I could mix up AA by flatting 3bet IP. Villain seemed competent and my AA combo the right candidate (suited and broadway connected). My understanding is that we can occasionally take this line with AA, but I could be wrong.

Four bet pre. As played c/r the flop.

I don't think this is the AA to flat pre. I may be wrong (I don't have a 100bb sim handy), but I believe you've got it backwards. We theoretically flat some weaker AA to keep from GII as an underdog versus more robust AA.

This combo is quite robust AA.

And especially if villain is more competent than folks who only 3bet AA, we're missing a lot of value by not 4betting preflop.

As played, flop seems like kind of an obvious raise to me? Other than 86xx/97xx rundowns and two-pair combos that spiked a set, we should be way ahead on such a nothing-y flop (but not so far ahead that we can be cute and slowplay).

4b pre. Raise flop as played.

I checked my resource on 4bet HU pots IP and theoretically we should only be 4betting 40% of our aces (we’re 4betting 100% OOP). However, this combo is a recommended 4bet, along with AAK and AAxx rainbow. The thinking here is that we need to realise more urgently with our weaker AA, while with AAK and AAQ we block KK and QQ (we’d rather not fold out these hands in 3bet pots). I’m guessing that AAK and AAQ do especially well against 4bet calling ranges, too, such as KQJTx etc.

I’m still not convinced that raising flop is best, although I acknowledge the reasoning. Aren’t we just folding out worse? Even when villain calls our raise, we’re in poor shape against any T and below on the turn. How often are we actually betting turn if we raise flop?

I don't know what you're looking at for preflop but I have sims at 20bb, 40bb, and 200bb. The short ones want to GII with all AA. At 200bb we're 4betting AA combos linearly, mixing in some flats. I don't know why 100-110bb would be dramatically different. (I just happen to not have a 100bb sim.)

And we have much better runouts than you're acting like.

We turn nutted backdoor draws on a spade, J, or 9. (The gutshots are modest, but that's real equity.)

2 on the turn and we're likely to be extremely ahead (buhbye villain's made 2pair and 2pair outs). 6 is a similar story, to a lesser extent (6xxx is far more likely than 2xxx for villain).

3 is probably a blank. 4 is somewhat similar, though 75xx is more likely than 54xx.

7 is probably our worst turn. Only four of those, though, and one give us a NFD.

All four nines give us a gutshot, one gives us a NFD... but it's also a bit yikestown.

Ten is scary for sure, but again: one gives us the NFD and all four give us new two-pair/trips outs (which shouldn't always be useless).

I'm counting a jack as good for us. Q ditto.

K (especially non-spade) is right there with 9/7 as a scary turn as we unblock KK (which should be a big part of a competent player's 3bet range).

Two aces give us the nuts.

I just don't think there are enough turns we're afraid of.

And if you don't want to see a turn and if you think villain is going to fold a lot, that sounds like an argument for raising. (As you can see, I disagree with fearing the turn but I'm just talking through your own points.)

And villain folding here is not bad. Denying equity is good almost always. We're usually not far ahead enough that we're interested in avoiding it.

I didn’t really think through the fact that, if we raise flop, villain is probably shoving or folding. Even if he does bet/call, the SPR will be 0.5, so we’re pretty much never folding turn, anyway, especially as it’s rainbow. I guess my key point about whether we raise flop is that we have flatted AA here, so we do want to maximise against worse overpairs. One problem, of course, with not raising flop is that we might make a mistake by folding some of those apparent scare cards on the turn.

Btw: I still think we are flatting AA pre at least half the time at 100ish bb, but definitely not if we’re shorter.

The solver only flats combos with wheel cards in them if I recall correctly. This kind of AA is the one it slams it in with 100%

Yeah, plus in these games players are probably defending too much against 4bets OOP, so we shouldn’t need to flat AA as much as the solver might suggest. If players are snap folding JJ-KKxx, then we should have a fair amount of AAxx in our 3bet flatting range.

These aren't the combos to flat as mentioned. Flop is a great bet/fold spot. st of hand is fine.