PokerStars - $0.02 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (BTN): 116 BB
SB: 160.5 BB (VPIP: 25.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 4)
BB: 100 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 9)
UTG: 431 BB (VPIP: 41.18, PFR: 41.18, 3Bet Preflop: 20.00, Hands: 17)
MP: 186 BB (VPIP: 40.00, PFR: 10.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 10)
CO: 211.5 BB (VPIP: 26.67, PFR: 8.89, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 45)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

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

fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 3 BB, SB calls 2.5 BB, BB raises to 14 BB, Hero calls 11 BB, SB calls 11 BB

Flop: (42 BB, 3 players) 4 Q K
SB bets 40.5 BB, fold, Hero ?


I don't think we can ever fold on this flop?
Do we just call? We'd have 60BB left in a 120BB pot, so our stack is going in anyway? So would shoving be a better play?

If we do call, what's our plan for the turn & river?

Why call 3bet when folding tptk?
Why call flop when pot committed?
Shove it max equity vs draws
Way ahead way behind but pot commited
I would shove flop

Doesn't feel like we're getting called by anything worse if we shove this flop.
So shoving basically turns our hand into a bluff.

If we call, we might get some more value from some Qx hands.

I hate both calling & shoving here.

Sb isnt leading for pot here with Qx. Hes mainly got KQo played terribly or 44 likewise. Nasty spot, dont expect to have enough equity to get it in here. That doesnt mean that your call pre was bad btw, imo thinking in absolutes doesnt really work in poker

So you'd fold the flop?

I'm personally 4betting pre with AK most of the time. When SB calls pre it's often going to be 3way to the flop with AK which isn't great. AP, I'm calling the flop and folding to a turn shove. It sucks, but SB almost always has a badly played KQ when they donk the flop like that, but I don't think you can be folding AK on the flop regardless

Make up your mind :P
If he almost always has KQ then we need to fold the flop

I mean, not really, but, first let's think about it even if we assume villain only has a range of KQ. We could have hands like AK, AQ, KQ, AJ, KJ, QJ, JT, some pocket pairs, and maybe some other suited middling cards depending on how wide we call. Facing a PSB our MDF is 50%. We can probably get away with exploitatively overfolding from a donk bet, though. AKo by itself has about 15% equity against KQ. If we fold all our pocket pairs, QJ, AJ, maybe AQ, we can just defend with hands like AK, KQ, JT, and maybe KJ with a BDF. AK and KJ are probably the thinnest in this range against a range of exactly KQ, but if villain is ever spewy in this spot and gets pissed off with JJ, overplays with AQ or JT, we would be giving up too much money folding AK OTF.

This should be shoved pre 100%

Call flop and see what happens.

I think a normal 4bet is better IP. I'm never just calling the squeeze.

I think call and shove are both valid options here. Fold is out of the question in this 3 bet pot. I think you have to put your chips in. Don’t think he has KK. QQ could be an option. Not enough infos on V but if you call flop you have to call any turn because of commitment. I personally prefer being aggressive and would shove.

He could be donking with Kx Int this spot as well.
I personally still struggle on when to 4 bet or call a 3 bet without AK. I don’t shop this PF by default.

I think flatting the flop and allowing villain to jam the turn with their AJs ATs TJs and any worse Kx is the best option. Your going to see AK a decent chunk and AA QQ a pretty high frequency as well. But as you say if you jam villain can play pretty much perfect and fold all their semi bluffs. This is basically the top of your range though so were not getting away postflop for 100bb in a 3bet pot

I call AKo the majority of time with position HU, but not in this type of situation. You want to 4bet to squeeze sb out and attempt a "dead money" grab pre. I'd go with a large "standard" 4bet and not a shove though.

Would you call a shove after 4 betting or do you 4 bet fold? I’m confused most of the Time because supposedly after 4 betting you are pricing yourself in to call a shove or not?

If you 4b here folding makes no sense

Call in these positions. You only price yourself in if more than 1/3 of your stack goes in pre, but your 4bets should never really be that much. Even if they were you can still find some exploitative folds.

You need 33% equity to call villains shove and villains going to be 5bet shoving QQ+ AK so AK has 40% equity.So you dont want to 4bet fold AK from the btn it's a value 4bet.But it can be conditional on your ranges and the sample they have on you.If your playing unbalanced and dont have any 4bet bluffs.You can expect tighter stack off ranges vs you if they are observant regs.

so shoving makes the most sense as it maximises fold equity versus villains who are not 5 bet bluffing enough. getting villain to fold any pair is a huge win here, getting villain to fold any suited connectors is a win. getting villain to fold in general is pretty great. getting folds with ak is very good.

4betting is meh because seeing a flop with ak is very meh with the rake, shoving is just generally better I think

How do you balance your range with bluffs if your 4bet shoving AK?.Allowing either villain to shove over the top with worse is a huge benefit for us.We dont want to only be up agaisnt the top of villains range with an unbalanced range of our own.

I would rather let him do something stupid with dominated hands and lower pairs, like call the 4b and fold to a cbet, or shove a worse Ace. If he doesn't fold to a cbet, he probably would have called a 4b shove anyway. I seriously doubt that most people are going to call a 4b shove with AQ and worse than JJ.

Not trying to balance

Will maybe shove AK+ and JJ+ usually in this spot

Will shove 88+ sometimes, depending on how out of line I think BB is with his squeeze

We do not want calls. deffo do not want to rely on a cbet to win a 4 bet pot.

We do not want action from ANY pocket pair (that's why we shove)

People not really 5 bet ripping AQs that often in this spot versus a 4bet. So not losing too much value from villain bluffing range.

People call with worse here pretty often at the micros in my experience (AQ/AJs)

So my options pre are:
- 4bet to 30BB & fold to a 5bet? I see very few players 4bet worse than AK
- 4bet all-in? but then we're only getting called by AA & KK, think a lot of QQ's are even folding, a few might call

Definitely don't think any AQ or TT or lower is ever calling a 5bet (shove or not)
Like it will happen, but not often enough to care about

The point isnt that they call you with worse when you 4b or shove here, the point is that you pick up the dead money some of the time and when you get it in you still have equity so its overall +EV.
Imho in this spot
call 3b = 4b/call > 4b shove > 4b/fold > fold to 3b

you want to win this preflop. What is the best way to win this preflop?

How much of a win is it when we get 1010/JJ and even some QQ to fold preflop

Very rare we shove and run into AA/KK with the blockers ofc

How much do we not want to go postflop 3 way versus any pair or even some random QJs? Not like we are crushing them in equity

What can villains do versus a shove?? not much really, gross spot for villain with any decent pair

WE DONT WANT TO PAY RAKE!!

Maybe I am butchering this explanation but just can't think of another way to say these things

One thing for sure though is calling the 3bet is deffo number 1 bad option.