1/$3 — JJ in a Squeeze Pot vs LAG, Hate This Spot

I don't think there's anything glaringly awful about your line. I would go a bit bigger pre though.

Do you read anything into an allegedly LAGgy villain taking such a weak/passive line though? Flatting a 3b OOP, flatting your cbet with far less than pot behind, and the tiny river bet? Depending on villain, that's going to be a good made hand that really doesn't want you to fold, thin value like a weak Ace, or random air that thinks they can sneak through OTR. You need to make a judgment call about how wide V gets to the river like this, because it does feel a bit like a range bet - if one with a lot of Ax in range.

But the LAGgy thing to do is xrai anything that wants to continue OTF.

At 290 effective to start, H shouldn't be folding after sticking 125 in. Or over 40%. I'd make the squeeze bigger to 80, but you don't have to. The downbet on flop is fine, can even go smaller, but H needs to continue on the turn. There's 165 back, 264 in the pot, just stick it in.
If you've a nitty image, even better.

I dunno if V had an ace or not. I can see a bad ace taking SV after H checks twice. Betting 35 percent here is a pretty meh stab though. Shrug.

seems fine. make it $80 pre. im not checking back the flop. you can check back KK and weak Ax though.

im not betting turn, worse hands are not folding.

Doesn't feel much of a lag given he calls twice pre, including OOP to a 3-bet. And calls flop.

Your hand is pretty face up at this point as JJ/QQ/KK so LAG could then be taking advantage of that, but there are not many busted draws here (KQ perhaps?), and so I just give this one up.

BTW - I think you played it fine. Most people including LAGs tend to play a litle more straightforward in 3-bet pots, so I like the c-bet.

If, he is a LAG, I would call river after your weak action on flop and turn.

interested in results if you called river as this is a common spot.

Not many LAGs in 1/3, it is unusual to see two at a table.

HU, I would check this flop even if I had the ace since it is so dry. Make a bigger bet on the turn than what you made on the flop if the villain checks.

I'm fine with the whole hand.

Fine with squeezing preflop against a loose opener and some called dead money, especially at these relatively small stacks.

I think a small protection cbet is fine with JJ (the higher our pocket pair on Ace high boards the more we can check them back as WA/WB, but JJ needs a little bit of protection from random K/Q overcards / gutshots).

Fine with attempting to get to showdown when our flop cbet is called.

And unless dood is super bluffy (keeping in mind he can't be floating with too much on this drawless flop) I'm fine with the river fold in spite of the good price.

Gnicehand,imoG

line is fine, at 1/3 I would fold most of the time at river. Although it is unlikely we see a river bluff, I think we should occasionally be prepared to bluff catch by river when turn goes check check and board/price is good

Also looks good to me. Is 7x standard open size? In any event once it's opened to that size and you squeeze there's not much room for manoeuvre. River is close for that price and given you may well be betting flop with a lot of hands so you may be somewhat face up, although you don't have much junk preflop facing 7x. Folding seems perfectly fine.

Line looks good - could also check the flop depending how villain reacts

Thanks all for the reply.

Despite the majority agreeing on being a good play, I personally think it sucks because we've blown away almost half our stack, adopting a fit/fold strategy.

I feel too uncomfortable to get in big pots pre-flop with middle pairs when there are high chances of high cards (A, K, Q) on the flop.

Had eff stacks been deep (+200bb), I'd probably play it like this. But with 90bb, I'm even pondering to just cold call the Open raise + limper. Or simply just making a nitty fold.

Not sure. I'm confused.

Folding JJ to a raise and calls is definitely bad. Flat call and 3! are both reasonable plays.

When you 3!, sometimes you lose 40% of your stack and sometimes you lose all of your stack. You can't worry about that. A hand that raised to 7x and called a 3! is often a strong hand.

A question about your last point, then another one to the multitude. In this hand, MP opens 7X, then folds to the 3!. LP call/calls. Here, how strong can LP be? Aren't JJ+,AQs+,AK 3!'ing themselves if LP? I agree with you if LP 7X'd over a MP limp, then called H's 3!, closing the action, and can see LP doing that with a lot of their range, including AA.

For everyone, is it better for a 3! OOP H, this shallow, to continue betting their superior range on an Ace-containing, but otherwise dry flop, or should they check or delay cbet instead? It sounds like x'ing is the way. I advocated betting small, but I'm biased by my pool being stabby when faced with a check, and I'd rather bet small than be faced with having to call a larger bet WA/WB. (I probably need to x-r more OOP.)

I guess my question is really asking, "Do our LL Vs fold bad/mediocre Aces on a dry Ace flop, to continued aggression? Or do they mostly sigh call their Axs-AJs, ATo-?" (A corollary: what Aces are they 3! IP, or 4! AP?) If they're sticky, we're just hurting ourselves, despite this being how H might play AQ-AK.

It really would have been no effort to write "MP folds, HJ calls" instead. Had NH,GG not pointed it out [hitchens also pointed it out in fairness] I never would have spotted that it was in fact the field caller who double flatted, not the original raiser. 2/10 for syntax.

My take on stack sizes is the opposite of yours.

The smaller the stacks, the more we lean to only playing big pears / big Ax and look to get the money in ASAP. The deeper the stacks, the more we can play a much wider range of hands plus perhaps play everything (including monsters) passively preflop cuz its all going to be about postflop.

Would only consider making a nitty preflop fold to a single raise against extremely face up sizing tell nitty players (I've folded QQ to a single raise before in the proper spots). Against LAGs at this ~smallish stack size and with the dead money of the caller I'd be 3betting almost always here.

GcluelessNLnoobG

Lol, I actually assumed the raiser called.

Gstill,IwouldplayitthesamewaypostflopG

I think this is way too results oriented.

A lot of V's range folds to your preflop raise. A lot more of it folds to your cbet. Some of the remainder of the time, you hit the flop. Occasionally yes, you don't make a hand and V does - that's poker.

If you think V calls both preflop and the cbet too wide, then I think river becomes an easy call. A loose player has tons of suited and unsuited connectors, suited gappers, Broadways, Kx suited, Qx suited, small pp, etc. in the original raising range that have made no better than second pair. Think about how much of that has to (or at least should in equilibrium) fold before reaching the turn.

I am not folding after your weak action to that size river bet from a LAG who called preflop and then called the 3!

AP, this is a snap call all day long. Your line stinks of weakness and should primarily be made of combos that you want to bluff catch with. Bet, check, bluff catch is a great line. Bet, check, fold to less than half pot shouldn't exist against anyone loose.

What does V have that we beat? Any random two broadway, any Tx, 99, 77, 55-33. We lose to AA, KK, QQ, TT, 88, 66, 22, and Ax.

Is V flatting, checking, donking those bluffs when you check back turn? If he is loose at all, yes. I'd bluff 100% of those combos against your line.

What about value? V is 4-betting TT-AA at least sometimes. As well as AT-AK. You're 100 bb, so those are just jamming hands for a LAG. 66 and 88 probably x raise flop, a LAG isn't looking for showdown with those before catching a set. Some Ax is going to bet/check raise flop. So Vs value that gets to the river is mostly flopped sets and maybe a few middling Ax. V is almost certainly overbluffing, we can call. If we were deeper, we could raise.

I wouldn't cbet frequently with JJ against someone who will bet. I'd cbet with hands that can call a x/r and air. JJ-KK can extend a LAG some rope and take a x/c/c line or when the backdoor flush draw turns, min-raising his bet and jamming checked rivers is a nice idea if he really is a LAG. If he is a really loose player, checking flop and jamming if he leads turn is probably profitable because you'll be called by FDs way too often and weak Ax might give up. But in general, I think V has less Ax than you think.

The worst thing you can do against a LAG is be passive. That's what we prey upon.

Yeah, we are told this guy is a LAG and we take a line that says "I'm weak. Please take this pot from me." Everyone says that is played perfectly.

If you are going to fold, why not check the flop and fold to a turn or river bet? Why waste money on a small cbet?

On the river, he bet a little over 1/3 pot, so you need to be good about 22% of the time. Are you really losing 80% of the time? This is really weak play.

As far as I can see this is cbet 35% pot, check back flop, fold to 35% pot on the river. Everyone thinks that is a good line, and with a hand with good showdown value, against a LAG no less.

I thought it was played great right up until you folded on the river. Pretty sure I’m calling there.