I am posting this because I feel I got myself into a really bad spot here and lost about 1/2 a BI with essentially A high. How would you have played this hand?

Poker Stars, $0.05/$0.10 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

MP: $20.50 (51/17)
CO: $22.65
BTN: $10.75 (21/10)
Hero (SB): $19.35
BB: $5.80
UTG: $14.75

Pre-Flop: A Q dealt to Hero (SB)
UTG folds, MP raises to $0.40, CO folds, BTN calls $0.40, Hero raises to $2.20, 2 folds, BTN calls $1.80

Not sure if my 3-bet here is too big, but my 3-bets were getting called a lot and vs 2 opponents I thought it would be better to bet a bit more than usual and try to take it down OOP, however, it did bloat the pot a lot...

Flop: ($4.90) 4 3 8 (2 Players)
Hero bets $3.20, BTN calls $3.20

Do you c-bet / not c-bet here?

Turn: ($11.30) 3 (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $5.35 and is All-In, Hero folds

Results: $11.30 Pot ($0.55 Rake)
BTN mucked and WON $10.75 (+$5.35 NET)

Lost 1/2 a BI on this hand, anything I could have done better?

3 bet smaller.. to ~1.60. When better hands call/raise, you lose less and get the same exact info as your raise to $2.20. At this level a call on your 3bet is not bad as I see AJ and 99 call 3bets here plenty.

is calling pf a mistake here? its easy to end up in sucky spots OOP like this one if you 3bet

and hes never folding a PP so you're only folding out hands with 3-6 outs with CB (not saying its wrong but i dont think its automatic)

I agree with this - but the pot was so big that I think it was worth trying to take it down...

calling pf is a big mistake here as AQ is way ahead of MP's raising range and therefore likely ahead of Btn's calling range. We 3bet here preflop because it's likely we are ahead in this spot. However 3betting to take the pot down is bad thinking since we want worse hands to call here. Betting on the flop here is also fine as we get just about every non-paired hand to fold and if called we still have 6 outs. The 3bet should have been smaller so that we wouldn't pot committ ourselves with a c-bet and if you hit an ace or a queen you will likely stack off regardless if your 3bet was $1.6 or $2.2. But never have the mentality of 3betting against 2 players to take down a pot. Always for value at this level IMO. 3betting against 1 raiser and no callers is a different story.

You raised too much pf. Just bet the pot +like 20 cents since your OOP.

IMO this is a good board to cbet on. Not too many floaters, no high cards, etc. C/f turn is fine.

You 3bet a little too much. Your c-bet is a little too much.


The actual actions however, are good.