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NL Holdem $0.05(BB)
UTG ($2.57)
HJ ($7.25)
CO ($4.88)
HERO ($13.72)
SB ($4.7)
BB ($7.41)

Dealt to Hero A Q

UTG Folds, HJ Raises To $0.15 (Rem. Stack: 7.10), CO Folds, HERO Raises To $0.5 (Rem. Stack: 13.22), SB Folds, BB Folds, HJ Calls $0.35 (Rem. Stack: 6.75)

Flop ($1.07) 9 J 8
HJ Bets $1.07 (Rem. Stack: 5.68), HERO Folds

Can I get a line check? V is unknown and we only get 16 seconds to make a decision. I felt like a nit folding here with 2 overs, bdfd, and a gutshot but this board smashes V's range and I don't think my ace and queen are always good. I had to be pretty creative with V's range to get close to the 33% equity needed to continue.

Why do you feel nitty for making a correct play?
Would you feel less nitty if you consider your overall range here instead of actually having AQ here?

yeah you're supposed to call in theory

But are you though? We've got alot of better hands to call with in our range... AQ, AK are pretty much the bottom of it.

AQ is a lot better than AK and AdQd,AsQs,AcQc a lot better than other AQ combos
AK and AQ aren't the bottom of our range assuming we're 3betting suited A2-A5 some %

I think I want to be floating here with some frequency. I don't have a ton of Tx, mostly just 1p hands that don't have a ton of ways to improve, but will usually be ahead at the moment.

What do you think Villain's donking as a bluff? ATs?..

I think it's one of the cases where Villains won't be creative enough to find sufficient bluffs in order to be balanced. This is weighted towards value, especially against an unknown.

It's not hard to figure out. Look at your range and see where AQ fits equity wise against reasonable ranges for villain. Then look at what your MDF should be (the easiest in this spot ) and adjust it to be tighter/looser based on population tendencies.

That's my **** in depth way of looking at it. My practical way of looking at it is we have 7 outs at most. We have some RIO on a Q/A. When we hit a diamond we're going to have to call again because nobody's potting this flop and checking turn on like a 2d. Then we run into RIO again in that spot when we river a pair. Then I look at it like micro players don't bluff often enough so our outs + issues + not bluffing enough more than = a fold.

That's pretty much the conclusion I came to, just wanted to see if anyone had other thoughts.