I don't think he has that many bare ace hands.
Why do we not think he has many Ace hands? Any hand he calls preflop that includes an ACE (admitedly SOME of them will fold) gets to the river as played. I'd say those make up a much bigger part of his range than small boats (would basically be dbl pair hands that include 33 and 55 or a 4556ds, 5567ds, type hands) and straights, not THAT many hands open and call a 3b with 24 in them except AK24ds, 2456ds type hands. As far as dbl floats go the only hands he could dbl float with are 46** type hand which now make a straight, as it's a really bad flop to float with nothing at all.
While it's good to put our opponents in tough spots, there are times when we can't do anything but give our opponent an easy spot, and times when going out of our way to give our opponent a tough spot isn't the most profitable line. The guys who give their opponents the toughest spots aren't generally the guys who go home with the most money.
I think this is a good example of that. Let's say that most of his range is hands where jamming gives him a tough spot - AJ-AK and the wheel - and that a small fraction of the time he has nothing and that a small fraction of the time he has the nut straight or better. The fact that we're giving him a tough spot with some of his range doesn't make up for the fact that we're massively value-towning ourselves from time to time, as well as letting him off the hook for a river bluff.
I disagree with this (bolded) I think it's an excellent way to play as a basic principal, if you relentlessly put your opponents in difficult spots, then it's inevitable that they will ultimately make mistakes, If I give you 25 spots in a session where you're umming and arring hovering between the fold and call buttons then it stands to reason you're prolly gonna make a bad call or fold on a fair few of those spots right? If I give you easy spots, by not value-betting thin in certain spots and never bluffing in others then 15 of those spots you're gonna have easy calls or folds - who's winning the money there? Also the more prone you are to making life difficult to people the less people tangle with you, you get less fancy play and floats and c/r's people 3bet you a little less and generally try avoid getting into gross spots against you - once they've decided not to tangle with you, you've won.
I think this is a good example of "well all options are a bit ropey, so lets go with the spot which gives him a harder time with his entire range."
I also think it's mostly just hopeful that we can get him to fold better or call worse. There are times that having blockers to certain hands can allow that to happen but against a good/solid opponent as described it seems unlikely.
The value we miss vs AQ and AJ - which don't constitute very many hands - is surely made up for by the frequency he's running a double float, and the possibility of him saving us money by betting less than all-in when he does have it.
Yh I think you're prolly right about this - I guess it depends how you wieght his range, if you think he has very few A*** (non boat hands) and some dbl floats then that gives you a lot different river decision.
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