AA heads-up - play for stacks?

Well, I would have tried to extract more and played differently, but I don't think it matters once he calls $100 on the flop. I actually kind of like it. The shove on the turn looks like a bluff.

Your image matters too, though.

It's fine since you didn't have much more than a psb left, and if a club, king or ace came otr he might fold his jacks or queens anyway. The only hand that beats us pretty much is tens.

PRE - seems fine. I might sometimes raise bigger, to $80, if I think V is gambooly or playing tight - unlikely to fold either way.

FLOP - seems like a big c-bet. I don't hate it if it gets called, but I'd probably go smaller, like $70 at most. Maybe just $50, with a plan to over bet turn bricks.

TURN - I like it. No sense in doing anything else when we get here the way we did.

The problem with c-betting so huge is that it narrows V's range a lot. Doubtful he's going to check raise TT, or continue without at least top pair or a draw to the nuts. We're really not doing anything to define his range, and just counting on him having a hand we beat, but still strong enough to stack off.

Well played, anything that called the flop will call the overbet on the brick turn card.. if you had played slower the action could have died on the river

I don't like the large c-bet or the shove on the turn. I think you can just bet smaller on flop and relatively small on the turn, given how dry and static the board is (no flush and effectively no straight draws). I would then likely bet small again on the river. Taking a levelling approach here (i.e. making V think you've got AK so he'll bluff catch with any pair) is a punt; it might work on the odd occasion, but generally he'll fold worse and call with better.

Yeah, I really don't like this. You basically have the nuts here -- you even double-block A4s. What are you afraid of? You can pretty easily 3e this hand, bet half-pot on every street, and get the money in OTR. It will be very difficult for him to fold most runouts and you can more credibly rep a bluff.

If you told me this guy was the ultimate station and would never fold a T+ here, I would say go for it. But against your garden-variety loose-passive I think this line burns money.

Why is everyone so desperate to win the minimum with thick value hands?

On a dry static board AA should be going to value town

The missed opportunity by underbets are a far bigger leak in most players game because they scared of having someone fold a marginal hand.. but sure, keep betting small in this spot to keep pocket 8s coming along

Betting all three streets and getting called in a 3bet pot is not a case of winning the minimum. I don't believe the issue is being "scared of having someone fold a marginal hand" but more a matter realising that an overbet doesn't make sense on a such static board (i.e. we shouldn't be polarised because we have few bluffs and rarely, if ever, are we nutted, unless we're 3betting TT and A4s). Keep in mind also that Villain does have TT and 4x in his defending range.

If you're confident that Villain will call an overbet with Tx then, as a pure exploit, it makes sense, but I'm not convinced a loose passive rec thinks "nah can't fold top pair" for 1.25x pot when Hero has a bunch of overpairs in his range.

Happy to get stacks in here. Maybe better to bet geometric over 3 streets.

The shove is fine, but only because he stuck around on the flop. Unless he has AcKc/AcQc (which we block), he's drawing to only 2 outs on the flop, so making such a chunky flop bet not only may push hands like AQ/AK/99/JJ into the fold column, but it shuts off the possibility of JJ/QQ/KK going for the c/r if your smaller bet looks weak.

Isn’t there a flush draw with the 2 clubs on the board?

I think the hand was played fine.

I do have a concern though with the turn shove. Some players will play too loose for cheap bets, but tighten up a lot on the big bets. They try to see cheap flops because of “implied odds” so they will limp and call with garbage, but that doesn’t mean they will call a big turn shove with top pair. Their plan is to wait until they get a monster before putting the big money in.

But is this villain really going to fold QQ or JJ in this spot? Maybe he folds a single ten but if he has that what is he raising with PF?

It's perfectly fine, maybe you could have gone a bit larger pre and OTF to make the shove a PSB but thats meh. Another idea is checking back turn to bluff catch river but there are some FDs.

Yes, you're right, my bad. The board is still relatively static, given it's paired and not that connected. I still prefer a smaller bet on the turn.

Results:

Not super important to the discussion above, but V won with A4s.

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pretty sure only trips or better calls your turn bet making it pretty pointless

It’s actually important because it illustrates that even though the stacks may have been going in, how they go in is going to change your opponent’s range.

So if we are committed to losing our stack to trips regardless, at least bet in a way that can more likely get stacks in against hands we are beating as well.

It is important, if anyone is to learn anything.

General thoughts:

1. V shouldn't have much 4x in his range when he opens UTG1. Probably just 44 and A4s, maybe some slivers of 54s. But that doesn't mean we can assume he never has 4x here. Since we'll rarely have any 4x in our 3B'ing range, we could just check back on the flop.

2. V could have TT, and a lot of Tx in his range.

3. C-betting over 2/3 pot on the flop is problematic with just an over-pair to the board, on a paired board, where V could have flopped trips or better. A $40-$50 c-bet is likely going to work better, as a way to help define his range, inasmuch as he's likely to raise with better value when the board is two-tone.

Overall I think checking back the flop to see if he bets turn, and how much, or c-betting for 1/3 pot or less is going to be better than c-betting large, which is going to force him to fold out a lot of hands we beat, and only continue with hands that are beating us, and draws to the nuts.

idk id try to play 3 streets as ip but i think its a good flop to size up on. something like 1/2 1/2 1/2 looks more natural than what you did. hand is clearly good enough to go w, you just want to press nut advantage / position and make him bluff catch over 3 streets range wise