2-5 QQ vs. competent reg. ... FPS or?

Aren't you meant to just go all in when your raise is more than 28pc of your stack or whatever? Because now you have half a pot left so it's going in anyway. Oyf you lost its just a cooler I suppose. You can probably just go all in on flop but I think money goes in whatever given you even unblock the draws

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Pre: In general, I’d jam here or pick a raise size that looks somewhat plausible as “a play” (around 225ish). Kudos for getting him to call your 3.5x 4bet.

Flop: Would probably bet 10% pot, and check it down. superstars might be able to fold if he shows any aggression in the hand, but idk ...

I have not played in this game at MS since Covid, so it's hard to comment on the specific V or the game tendencies after 5 years.

You're much better than me (as is everyone ITF) so I'm hesitant, but here goes:

Preflop: the 320 sizing on the reraise is very awkward because we're setting up a commitment spot at this SPR. You are basically 130 bbs deep and while not short stacking it, you're generally looking to set up commitment spots with the top of your range oop and inducing V play too wide of a range when you're IP.

So I would prefer to call the 90 in position. Let him think we're capped so he will blast off too wide. From your HH, it appears there are good "metagame" reasons to call because this guy gets out of line. OOP I would probably just jam preflop at 130bb given his tendencies.

AP: 150 blocker is fine because we are beaten anyway if he calls and you may save money versus jamming depending on the runout. He has to fold his KK, which even LAGs can get.

Lousy flop, but betting is good. You have ~$400 left? $150 is fine -- that or just jam. I probably just jam because I'm not folding.

Random grunches:

Whenever I'm LAG'ing it up and have to show a hand I raised that I know others at the table wouldn't, I have a little internal debate about whether or not I'm supposed to tighten up now that they know I'm opening / 3B'ing wider than they do, or if I should just continue to play what I think is theoretically correct, especially if I'm winning.

Here, when you tank-fold AQ and V shows A5, I wonder if he's thinking about it, and now playing a tighter range.

I don't know how you get to the flop this way. Once you decide to 4B, I think it should just be a jam pre. Either flat call and bluff-catch, or jam.

It's somewhat odd that V is asking for your stack size pre, and then flatting your 4B. You're not deep enough for him to set-mine. I'd think he'd be likely to jam pre with QQ+/AK.

The fact that he asked for your stack size in the AQ vs A5 hand makes me think it's something he does whenever he's contemplating making some sort of play. He's not figuring out if he's getting the correct IO to set-mine, he's figuring out how much it's going to cost him if he jams and you snap.

I don't want to extrapolate too much from it, but the stack-check combined with his flat call makes me wonder if maybe he's not really all that good. If he's a thinking player, he should be aware of his own table image, such that if he had KK+ he'd know he could jam and get more calls than others at the table would. Once he sees that you've put more than 1/3 of your stack into the pot, he should know you're pot committed, and aren't folding.

So, I don't think he has a big PP, nor do I think he gets here with AK. He may have some AXs combo, although, if he's 4B'ing A5s and calling more than 1/3 stack 4B's from OOP, my hunch is he decided not to tighten up, and could be getting OOL with some hands that are worse than AXs.

It would suck to bet $150 and have him jam on us. It would also suck if he check-calls the whole way. I think the play here would be to check back and jam if he leads turn, or just jam now.

Part of my reasoning is a hunch that he may actually think he's the best player at the table, and may not think you're all that good, and that he can out-play you because you're too face up. If that's his read on you, then a jam looks pretty credible, like you have AA or AK, and are hoping to get max value.

If I was LAG'ing it up, and an opponent I perceived as tight 4B pre, I'd fold everything worse than AA/KK. But let's say I opened, the TAG 3B me, and I called with AXs. If I checked this flop, and the TAG jams, I'm folding all my AX combos, instantly, and sleeping like a baby that night.

Results:

Also I looked at GTO wizard:

lol I actually typed out a response to this thread a few days ago where I was going to say I thought Villain’s range in this spot had a lot of AA and KK.

Think your 4bet size in this hand looks ridiculously strong. Jam looks much weaker and minclick at least looks like you might be able to 4bet/fold (even if no one ever actually does).

I would be blown away if a good player showed up in this spot OOP with A5s. Also think AK jams pre so he just doesn’t have much AX.

Flat pre or jam. Not sure what happened here 😅

OTF: geometric size is $100, and I’d go smaller than that IP on an A-high flop, not bigger than it.

Interesting that you showed. I never show hands like that unless I want to really tilt someone (and I know they can be tilted). I like keeping the image that when I bet I have it 😉

Seen reveal.

Conclusion #1: 4bet bluff this V more (easier said than done, of course).

5b bluffing AQ probably not advisable, though, especially as these villains only 4bet bluff A5 once in a blue moon.

My speculative read is that perhaps villain noticed you were miffed when he showed the A5 and assumed you folded QQ/AK and that your 4bet range is therefore KK+.

It's actually a little counter-intuitive because as a level you'd think he'd slam-dunk shove/or quick call his hand when you 4bet on this occasion, because he thought you were either tilted or had adjusted (e.g. 4betting AJ+/TT or something plus some random stuff).

Conclusion #2: villain not really a LAG and more concerned with a little smoke-and-mirrors production in order to hide a standard TAG game.

If you’re gonna make it 320 pre you might as well shove dark.

Regarding H1 and the banter that followed; pros dont comment on the status of other pros. Furthermore pros dont 4bet A5s. This hand wants to go multiway. If you're going to play a 4bet pot with a suited connector you want to be the one calling the 4bet, not making the 4bet, this way you can see a flop and stack AA.

Secondly, dont 3bet AQo OOP. This is the crap you run into. It's like those OMC's who say AK looks good but never wins, except it's actually true. I dont mean from a results perspective, I just mean it's not some super premium hand you want to go around playing for stacks UNLESS your opponent has a history of doing what this guy did. In that case I'm ripping AQ in his face all day every day. In your spot, call from OOP and see a flop. Consider x/r if you hit TPTK but calling will always be fine. Your goal is to play recs IP in a SRP, not regs OOP in a multiway 3bet pot.

OTTH; 4bet is totally fine and no we're not jamming. You probably want to make it like 2.2x, so maybe 200 to give some postflop play. KK/AA will just get it in vs you so we get to build a pot vs JJ and hope for low cards. Pretty much just auto-cbetting 100% of range and you'd be surprised he may let go of another A5 type hand.