Unorthodox back check-raise on flop - stupid-crazy or great situational awareness?
2/5. 9 handed. $1k max buy-in. Effective stack depths are around $1k-$1.5k, but not really pertinent in this hand.
V1 / UTG- Sitting around $1k. Somewhat new to the table. Never played with him before. Younger guy (mid-late 20's-ish). Seems capable / aggro. Sitting on hero's direct left. He's been raising and then over-folding to hero's pre-flop 3B's and 4B's pre. He's had to top off once or twice since sitting down, after losing a couple big pots when other opponents sucked out. I noticed he had a bag of black chips with him, so he's obviously a reg. Haven't seen him show down any big bluffs or make any crazy hero-calls. Seems like he's playing fairly tight, with occasional spurts of very aggro play.
V2 / BTN - hero has a ton of hours against this V. We're pretty friendly. He's young (20's), and pretty competent, yet prone to tilt when he's running bad, as he has been this session. He's stuck over $400 (I know because I lent him $400 at the table). He's fairly TAG normally, but can get very LAG when he's stuck and / or tilted. When he's in that mode, he'll call down light on flop or turn, but won't usually make too-light calls or make big bluffs on river. He's sitting on about $1400.
Hero / BB - Early 50's. Sitting around $1200-$1500. Should have a reasonably solid / aggro image. I'd done very little if any limping pre, except maybe some over-limping from the BTN or BB. Been folding a lot pre, or opening for $20, or 3B'ing, some 4B'ing. Haven't got caught making any huge bluffs recently, but have been betting thin for value, often winning, occasionally losing. Made some good check-backs and tight folds. Been mixing up my flop plays with some c-bets, check-calls, check-raises, and delayed c-bets on turn.
OTTH...
PRE - V1 opens to $20 UTG. Folds to V2 who flats on the BTN. SB folds. Hero in BB calls with T7ss.
FLOP ($60) - T84r (no spades).
V1 checks. V2 bets $30. Hero calls. V1 now check-raises to $130. V2 calls. Hero now back-check-raises to $450.
I know what you're thinking - this is the stupidest play you've ever heard of anyone making. I've never made this play before. But this was my reasoning in-game...
V1's UTG raise range should be strong, with over-pairs, and some un-paired over-cards. V1 may or may not realize V2's BTN range is going to be wider than GTO here, but I do, because I know V2 well, and I know he's somewhat tilted and trying to manufacture some wins. Getting 3:1 on a call, my BB defending range is going to be pretty wide here, especially against these two V's.
Even though it's a rainbow board, this board is going to connect with my range and BTN's range, so I would expect V1 to c-bet here a lot, definitely with his over-pairs. When he checks, V2 on the BTN bets, and I call, I'm expecting V1 to fold, or just flat call.
But when V1 x/r's, my first thought was that he's full of $hlt. I think it was his sizing and pacing, which was kind of fast. I'd have expected him to take a little more time if he had an over-pair. He's OOP to the BTN, and I'm still in the hand. Why is he only raising just over 4x?
When V2 just flat calls the x/r, I'm positive he's not that strong, and is hoping to take this pot away on turn or river.
I decided that V1 most likely had two over-cards and decided to rep an over-pair with his x/r, and V2 probably had 2nd pair or a draw, but at most, just top pair. It seemed to me that I was the player who could most likely have T8 here, and if I had T8, I would have just check-called flop against V2's bet, but would now look to raise, when the pot has been bloated to $350.
Rather than fold top pair, or call $130 OOP with just a weak top pair, with almost no chance to improve, I decided to raise big to try to take the pot down right there.
Thoughts?