PAHWM: A7s in the Big Blind I

I have some extra time on my hands, and there’s not a lot of hands posted here anymore, so here’s one I played the other night that I thought was interesting.

30/60 LHE at Ameristar Black Hawk

V1: Action Guy (AG) is action, not very regular but stupid LAG especially when he’s stuck.

V2: Quite possibly the best player in the game and part of the Boulder crowd, we had lunch today and talked about this hand. Very aggressive-he’ll never be the first to call and 3bets and continuation bets relentlessly in position.

Action Guy opens UTG+1, V2 3bets Lojack, and Hero has Ad7d in big blind. Hero knows that V2 is 3betting a wide range here because AG is opening any two cards often now. I ran an Equilab simulation in which I gave him a range of 33+,A2s+,K7s+,Q7s+,J7s+,T7s+,96s+,86s+,75s+,65s,A2 o+,K9o+,Q9o+,J9o+,T8o+,98o (38.6%).

My hand is strong compared to the ranges of the 2 villains but I’m out of position and will face be facing bets from both of them on all streets. Hero?

I’ll get to the flop some time this evening.

Cappuccino

Yep, Steam it up!

Okay, mistake #1 in this hand, I just call. I should be well ahead of the range of both villains, my only excuse is I hate my hand out of position. They both would've of course called, that 1 big blind of lost value.

The flop is T77, giving me trips. All options except folding are open: donk bet, check/call, check/raise. We can count on V2 to cbet this 100% of the time, V1 is somewhat unknown.

Hero?

From the comfort of my phone, I'd spend a second wondering whether AG is in a moment when he will discriminate between one bet and two. But at the table I kr automatically.

If the flop checks thru, I might consider betting a turn deuce or a trey. but generally I'm going to check again and give AG some rope.

I just call pre flop. I would want to get involved with a lot of hands given this dynamic but don't want to cap them all. We have a read that V2 is C betting relentlessly so why not just call pre and play appropriately on the flop. This seems like not a great hand to be capping OOP even if we think we are ahead. This seems like a decent spot to keep some high card value in your calling range. If you think AG will fold after we cap then disregard what I said but I doubt it from an AG. Also, what range are we putting on V2? It's not like he raised from the button. He should be motivated to Iso the action guy but still has players behind him.


As played, I would CR the flop.

Check raise / jam the flop!

I've seen winning players both call and cap (4 bet) from the BB in 3 player pots. That said, my Button vs. Blinds simulation always caps when entering the pot in the BB after a Button open and SB 3 bet. It caps with a much wider range than you would typically expect and oddly it checks a high % of flops to the button after a SB check. The reasons for these actions are not yet clear to me, but that's what it does as part of its equilibrium. It's a clear departure from what is current practice in the live games I play in and I'd be interested in the community's feedback as to why this might be.

In the sim A7s is a cap against a button and SB raise using GTO ranges for both positions. This situation is obviously different, but I would expect a model capable of simulating more than the three last positions to provide a similar result. I have no way to empirically prove this yet, but am working on it .

Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate the content you provide.

People rarely cap in my games as well in this spot even with strong hands. I think flatting in these wide range situations is overdone. I suppose you can go either way with this hand. It just feels more like a call to me.

I think the button raise, SB 3 bet situation is quite a bit different from this original spot. The ranges should be wider and we have position on one of the players.

Am I crazy to think that this range is overly wide? V2 is 3 off the button.

I took this as AG's range.

No, hardinthepaint is correct, this is the range I assigned V2. He is going to agressively isolate AG, I'll stand by this range.

I checked, AG checked, V2 cbet as expected. I paused and decided to give AG some rope, just called. AG paused, then mucked, FML.

Turn is T
Board is now (T77)T

Hero?

I would call preflop. I think it's closer to a fold than a cap (particularly given both your absolute and relative position) but call seems like the best option by far.

I would c/r flop for sure. Your hand looks like an overpair (maybe), a T, or a draw. How many sevens are you really taking 2 to the chin with preflop? I think someone will likely put in more action with an overpair and you will often get to cap the flop or 3bet the turn.

As played I would still c/r the turn and would call down a 3bet (or a river raise).

+1 except cap is better than fold preflop

I read this as AG opening almost any two and V2 3-betting the 38.6% range, which would be ambitious in most games but not necessarily wrong depending on how the players behind were going to react. Based on that it would be an easy cap imo.

Given the new information... I dunno, probably doens't matter much what you do but folding seems like the worst option. If capping now gets folds on the flop and turn it's probably the play.

Fair enough. I just wanted to sanity check the fact that I would be three-betting here with something more like 20% of my hands (just a tad under what I would open raise in that position with). If someone you describe as the best player in the game is three-betting with nearly double the hands I would, that indicates one of us is doing something very wrong. If I thought the players behind me would be oblivious to my light three-betting and fold anything but tippy top hands, I would do this, but that seems unrealistic to me.

I agree with c/r the flop and, as played, I would c/r the turn.

I think we've given up a lot of info not protecting a 10.5 bet pot by raising this flop and now we have to donk. If we check, he bets overpairs and boats and checks a ton of the rest. He's got little incentive to bet ace high and no incentive to bluff, imo, because of our flop call. I get that's contrary to the barrely read but if quantph is calling him PBPIG I think that we have to give him thoughtful too. If we donk, including our Ace high spade draws, he's forced to call broadly and we save a bet in boat v boat. Is that enough to overcome two turn bets vs overpairs? Think so but interested in other opinions.

Yep, as played check raise turn. I think we have one of the best hands we could have in our distribution after calling pre and calling flop. If they three bet, puke and call down... just not on my shoes .

Not necessarily. V2's play is not in a vacuum, he has a specific read on V1 and who is left to act. I can't speak to the specifics of your game but if it's tough then this 3b range is way too wide but it is definitely the correct play here, given the villain and the other opponents.

Stinkypete has it all right, folding is by far the worst option. And you read that correctly.

I like both of these options, and at a leisurely analysis I think craise is best-he'll call down all overpairs, probably A highs as well. If he 3bets then I follow Jlot's words of wisdom and puke, call down.

At game speed, my big brass ones shriveled up, and I just called

Since I've butchered this hand on pretty much each street by being so passive, I'll finish it off here:

River is 9, board is T77T9

I chk/call yet again, V2 shows 98 for a pair of 9s, flopped an open-ended straight flush draw. I think a lot of bets would've gone in on the flop if I had checkraised, if I had done that on the turn he likely would've folded.

Overall, this hand was played about as badly as I could have played it. So many bad players in the game that when I find myself HU against one of the handful of top-notch players I'm completely lost. Let's try to fix that!

Thanks to all for playing along. I'll try to post some new hands as long as this furlough continues

No doubt V2 should have a wide 3 bet range here, but doesn't there come a point where certain parts of this range are going to suffer badly those times someone else enters the pot? I say this given how far off the button he is.

I certainly won't argue with your read here. If the rest of the table is getting out of the way and only joining in when they have a premium holding then bombs away.

Oh woops... I misread the initial clarification. Yes if 3 bettor is estimated at 38.6% range then cap >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> call >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> fold. Anyone who likes fold here should go play NL or something.

I hate not capping because you have to punish V2 when nobody else will, even tho he's a nice guy. He's prob so nice he drinks vegan hot chocolate at the table cuz think of the cows.