AQo- The Big $55

[wazz]

3b/fing here is predicated on the idea that he will call with worse, enough of the time to balance out the occasional spazz with worse/flipping or slowplay with better to get us into trouble. Given he's got 25bbs and we have no reads we can't say he does or doesn't do any of the above things in the right ratios to justify it. AQo is pretty much the exact hand where he at least calls all better and folds all worse. That's confused a little bit by the equity we steal when he folds low pocket pairs but he doesn't have that many to start with from UTG and we lose out that equity anyway when he 4bjams TT/JJ. I know it's a cliche but we may as well have A2o in this spot (well not quite because I suppose he could r/c AJs, and the Q in our hand does serve as an extra blocker), given we can also probably call we may as well do that.

As to call or fold pre that's up to style/preference/confidence, I generally call but it's far from a crime to fold.

Postflop I would fold to the first bet in theory as he doesn't have that many weaker aces in his range and we're sandwiched with 3 people left to act behind us, when we don't have the best hand we're sometimes going to feel priced in on Ah/Kh/Th/8h turns and end up spaffing off a lot more $. In practice I seem to call these spots though.

[Flash92]

3b/fing here is predicated on the idea that he will call with worse, enough of the time to balance out the occasional spazz with worse/flipping or slowplay with better to get us into trouble. Given he's got 25bbs and we have no reads we can't say he does or doesn't do any of the above things in the right ratios to justify it. AQo is pretty much the exact hand where he at least calls all better and folds all worse. That's confused a little bit by the equity we steal when he folds low pocket pairs but he doesn't have that many to start with from UTG and we lose out that equity anyway when he 4bjams TT/JJ. I know it's a cliche but we may as well have A2o in this spot (well not quite because I suppose he could r/c AJs, and the Q in our hand does serve as an extra blocker), given we can also probably call we may as well do that.

As to call or fold pre that's up to style/preference/confidence, I generally call but it's far from a crime to fold.

Postflop I would fold to the first bet in theory as he doesn't have that many weaker aces in his range and we're sandwiched with 3 people left to act behind us, when we don't have the best hand we're sometimes going to feel priced in on Ah/Kh/Th/8h turns and end up spaffing off a lot more $. In practice I seem to call these spots though.

Good post, thank you.

[richchiv12]

To clarify, I'm fairly new to poker and only just started with this hand analysis, I'm curious why do we fold pre here? And then why do we fold the flop if we hit a lot of what we wanted? Not arguing, just trying to clarify why :-) 

[JMcKW]

Easy fold

[verndog158]

Easy fold

a succinct and in depth first post :p

[Honeybadger]

3b/fing here is predicated on the idea that he will call with worse, enough of the time to balance out the occasional spazz with worse/flipping or slowplay with better to get us into trouble. Given he's got 25bbs and we have no reads we can't say he does or doesn't do any of the above things in the right ratios to justify it. AQo is pretty much the exact hand where he at least calls all better and folds all worse. That's confused a little bit by the equity we steal when he folds low pocket pairs but he doesn't have that many to start with from UTG and we lose out that equity anyway when he 4bjams TT/JJ. I know it's a cliche but we may as well have A2o in this spot (well not quite because I suppose he could r/c AJs, and the Q in our hand does serve as an extra blocker), given we can also probably call we may as well do that.

Whilst what you are saying is not exactly false, it is sort of missing the point a bit. The point is that if we are 3betting this hand we are bluffing! Not value 3betting. Obviously it is a semi-bluff rather than a pure bluff since villain may occasionally call and we outflop him. But that is the case with ALL preflop bluffs (equities can never be truly polarised preflop).

Idea behind using AQ to bluff with is that if AQ cannot be profitably flatted then it is at the very top of our folding range and should thus be used to bluff with. Reason it is a better hand to 3bet bluff with than A2o or 33 is due to A) blockers and B) it has more equity when called.

[buffyslayer1]

3b/fing here is predicated on the idea that he will call with worse, enough of the time to balance out the occasional spazz with worse/flipping or slowplay with better to get us into trouble. Given he's got 25bbs and we have no reads we can't say he does or doesn't do any of the above things in the right ratios to justify it. AQo is pretty much the exact hand where he at least calls all better and folds all worse. That's confused a little bit by the equity we steal when he folds low pocket pairs but he doesn't have that many to start with from UTG and we lose out that equity anyway when he 4bjams TT/JJ. I know it's a cliche but we may as well have A2o in this spot (well not quite because I suppose he could r/c AJs, and the Q in our hand does serve as an extra blocker), given we can also probably call we may as well do that.

Whilst what you are saying is not exactly false, it is sort of missing the point a bit. The point is that if we are 3betting this hand we are bluffing! Not value 3betting. Obviously it is a semi-bluff rather than a pure bluff since villain may occasionally call and we outflop him. But that is the case with ALL preflop bluffs (equities can never be truly polarised preflop).

Idea behind using AQ to bluff with is that if AQ cannot be profitably flatted then it is at the very top of our folding range and should thus be used to bluff with. Reason it is a better hand to 3bet bluff with than A2o or 33 is due to A) blockers and B) it has more equity when called.

^^ Good post the hand is at the very bottom of potential calling range so using it to 3b/f makes sense

Also would 3b/f or fold pre as stated.

One of the considerations that hasn't been mentioned is that we are in MP with multiple players behind us as well; we will get squeezed off our hand a decent % of the time to start with and don't even get to flop which really sucks and takes away massively from the EV of flatting pre.
Say each player behind us squeezes with roughly a top 5% hand means we won't get to flop roughly 20-25% of the time (not sure of exact positions but its 0.95^5 or ^6 depending on how many left to act).

edit: saw its 4 left to act so 0.95^4 = 19% of time we get squeezed for example


Furthermore, if we get callers behind us (likely) it will be very hard to the win pot multiway with a hand that's not actually that good multiway anyway, especially when likely to be out of position. Overall think flatting is likely outright bad in this spot

As for flop pretty simple fold given the action

[buffyslayer1]

Yeh I fold pre here unless reason to think its a good spot to 3b/f

Would 3b/call rounder and a few others perhaps

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[lolwutwasthat]

Yeh I fold pre here unless reason to think its a good spot to 3b/f

Would 3b/call rounder and a few others perhaps

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