TT in the SB vs Pro OTB

You're in the worst position for the rest of the hand, with a BB who'll call stupidly wide, and you have Tens. Why wouldn't you 3! this, to 60 or so?

Get ready to call it off too, if BB overcalls, and V decides to shove. I don't think a 4!-shove from a slumming reg/pro vs a feisty 1/3 peasant who's already 3!'d their open today, is exclusively QQ+/AKs.

Crystal clear 3bet spot. V1 is opening unbelievably wide in this spot. You will win $18 unraked the majority of the time.

Just checking to see if I played it right preflop. 2+2 never ceases to surprise me.

Anyway, the hand continues…

Folds to V1 who bets 15 OTB. Hero in the SB with black TT, and V2 yet to act in the BB…

Hero raises 60. V2 folds. V1 looks at his cards again. V1 all in. Hero?

It's not a slam dunk spot at all, unless we think he's shoving pairs below 1010 but he shouldn't also be shoving AA here.

it's 240 to win another 365 so we only need to be 40%, but we're 36% against a range of exactly JJ-KK and then AKo and AKss

but...as a 2/5 and 5/10 reg...I can confirm that most people playing 2/5 and 5/10 are not indeed pros and lots of them are spewy.

meh, without further evidence, I think it's a close spot where I'm guessing, so I probably fold.

Bigger thing IMO is your mindset.
- You don't need to be intimidated by people who play higher.
- Just because someone folds to your 3 bet, it doesn't mean they had a read on you.
- always have a plan before you 3 bet
- if you are intimidated, pick up your chips and change table

One thing that has helped me in these types of spots: Always consider the possibility of a raise before you take an action.

I like your decision to 3-bet, but now you're kind of in no-man's-land as to what to do vs the jam. You potentially could have altered your 3-bet sizing to make a decision vs a shove clearer one way or the other. If you went smaller it would probably be a fold. If you went larger it would be a call. As played it's right on the borderline.

I think I probably fold, but it's a close spot. TT is the worst pair that is pure calling in this spot on a 100 bb chart. 99 and 88 are mixing. That being said a GTO opponent is occasionally jamming something like a weak suited ace, which you rarely see in these live spots.

On the other hand there's a chance he's bored playing smaller stakes than he's used to, and could be getting out of line.

I would just go with your read in the moment and not beat yourself up over the results one way or another. If you expect him to jam any worse pocket pairs or weaker bluff-type hands like weak suited aces then that would probably be enough to turn this into a call.

This is a close spot now for this price. I don't think it's a big mistake to fold but I would probably call. Leaning towards call because:

A) This is a wide range spot where both of you should be playing aggresively

B) You already 3bet V once before, so he has reason to believe you could be light here (e.g. not just AA/KK like a nit)

C) You are essentially a shortstack in this game, so V is more likely to just say "eff it" and shove with 99/AQ type hands (potentially even more likely if he is used to playing higher stakes)

I said call it off before (albeit hoping V2 would add a lot of dead money), and I still would here. Caveat, was V's looking at their cards intended to induce a lighter call?

Mainly, I think a lot of V's range is a lot of higher, unpaired Ax that want to see 5, don't mind throwing their position advantage (though ~2 SPR) away to do so, and hope FE can carry some of the weight. H is a favorite over those. There's also stuff like QQ-JJ, ofc.

I think it's good to realize when you're in a game that suits your skillz / is in your wheelhouse / etc., and when you aren't. One way to combat being over your head in a game is to purposely buy in on a shorter stack and just play super tight, thus nullifying anyone's advantage (both positionally and skill-wise) over you. If your stack grows deeper, make sure to not be seated directly OOP to a deep difficult player, consider moving tables, if you must stay then just do the best you can while playing within yourself (you don't have to impress anyone here, play your your game), and otherwise consider going home early. IMO.

Preflop is a very similar situation to a hand that was posted here a month or so ago. The things I would take into account are stack sizes (the smaller we are, the cooler we are playing for it all, the deeper, not so much), the dead money (the less dead money the less incentive to get aggro preflop), the strength of our hand (TT is a solid hand no doubt... but it is likely a lot more equivalent to 77 than it is AA, especially OOP to a pro), and the opponents (in this spot, who are we making our money from long term, the solid pro in position or the poor calling station in the BB?). So with all that said, I think just flatting preflop to draw in the BB is fine. The pro will play a lot more straightforward going 3ways with the calling station in the hand. Obviously 3betting and taking down the pot is a fine result, but getting called OOP to a pro with a hand that is going to hate a lotta flops / runouts ain't a great spot, and getting 4bet (blowing out the fish and putting in a decent amount of our stack only to not realize any equity whatsoever) is a disaster. Worse comes to worse, we flat with better, the pro owns us with worse on a poor looking flop, and we lose a whole $15, whatever, it won't define our session at this whale infested table (there are going to be *much* better spots, right, so there is no need to get into some high variance epeening war with a solid player OOP when there is a bunch of low hanging fruit). I'll likely be outvoted on these thoughts, but I play within myself.

ETA#1: FWIW, I'm assuming BB folds pretty much everything to a 3bet. If she calls pretty much everything to a 3bet, then obviously a lot more incentive to 3bet.

ETA#2: I'm folding facing the 4bet. If I'm reading things right, we likely have a tight ABC image, one that isn't lightly 3betting a Button open but rather just simply playing the strength of our hand.

GcluelessNLnoobG

You waited 2 posts and 67 minutes before the reveal? This hand must really be bothering you!

Against an equal or lesser player, this is a 3 bet most of the time. But if you're concerned about this player and his disregard for money in this smaller game, why play right into his hands with the lower end of your 3! range? He's got position, this is child's play for him, at least in your eyes.

As already mentioned, if you're going to 3! this guy, you've got to have a plan beforehand on what to do when he 4!.

Poker isn't that hard when you don't try to outplay better players OOP.

Easy 3bet to $40 - $50.

Edit: just saw that you did 3bet. Meh. I can go either way, but I probably sigh-fold unless you want to gamble and can easily buy back in.

I needed an editor for this. I meant to say pro had no read. We have played only two orbits. Pro thought hero was just a tag.

What do people think about V1 looking again his cards before the 4bet? Does a pro ever check if he has QQ or KK or JJ? I think pros only recheck their cards for suits. I thought checking his cards was a tell: he has AX. V1 was confident opening OTB with most AXo, but wants to know if his AX is suited before 4betting.

Or do pros really sometimes need to double check if they in fact do have QQ, not AQ?

Unless you know for sure that it means something, then I would discount it.

And re/checking cards is just as likely to be a bluff as it is ‘doubt’

I'm pretty skeptical about all this "he's a pro" talk in a 1-3 game. I'm guessing that OP is presenting as uncomfortable, which means V1 could be raising very wide here. I'm not thrilled but I'm probably calling it off here.

Checking hole cards post flop is a different tell than preflop. Pros don’t look at cards twice preflop to confirm they do indeed have a premium pair. There’s no need to know the off suits preflop, only that the cards are suited. No pro looks at his cards once again after opening open OTB if he has JJ-AA.

Results

Hero sees the tell and calls.

Flop: AJ9r

That’s a bad flop for me, I said. V peeled AQ. I don’t remember if it was suited, but I think not.

Turn is J. River a 9.

This is utter nonsense.

Few Vs at 1/2 actually 3bet unless they have QQ+, AK, and a lot call with even AK and QQ. The game is raise the limpers wide because none of the loose passives fight back with 3bets. Almost no one at 1/2 4bets light with AQ.

In this 1/3 game, every open can face a 3bet, and every 3bet a 4bet, and the whales are so deep, they are making 5bet bluffs.

So I was in over my head, but I think the only way to learn is swimming in the shark pit

I think it’s a slam dunk call here.

Snapcall this shortstacked. It’s your last hand at this table regardless.

.

Sorry you lost.

You called it off as a 54/46 (suited) or 57/43 (offsuit) favorite. Ask to run it twice, I guess. Worst case, you made >$50 Sklansky bux.

Agreed that this is not a call vs the vast majority of the current 1/3 population.

Kinda results oriented, imo. How are we doing against his whole range that he does this with? Is flipping AQ/KQs/etc. the bottom of his range? Cuz if so, we're mostly crushed or flipping, and never crushing ourselves (or is he doing this with the occasional 99, really?), with no other dead money (actually negative money thanks to rake).

GcluelessresultsorientednoobG