NL100 AQo bvb

I think preflop you need an outstanding reason not to 3bet.

As played, river is a slam dunk vbet for me. Once he checks the turn, you need to know he does it with sets+ which I doubt he does. It's most likely going to be a middle pair (55, 77, 76, 89, T8, maybe 99-TT).

If for whatever reason he has a set it's going to weaken his turn range a lot when he bets imo so you get a good read in a spot where you are definitely ahead a lot.

I don't see any reason to 3bet here against an unknown reg w/out any reads/dynamics whatsoever. If he 4bets I have to fold, and I doubt he will call any worse aces or queens that often. So I think flatting is best here.

Why don't you think he'd check a set on the turn btw, if calls it on the flop is obv not gonna bet it now when the flush gets there?

Maybe river is a valuebet though, but I am far from sure. If he has a onepair hand here I think w/out any history most opponents will fold here a lot of the times, so it doesn't matter if I am ahead of his range if he will very rarely calll med with the parts that I beat.

villain checked on the river btw here (managaed to somehow delete his actions..) and effective stacks are approx 70$.

Preflop vs a NL100 reg you should be able to 3bet/5bet AQo BvB profitably as a default. If you're not 3betting AQ, what are you 3betting? He can 4bet you every time and your range is so weak he prints money or you play passively and he can steal light and still print money. You don't ever put pressure on him.

Ah, I missed your raise on the flop. He still doesn't have set because he'd 3bet flop with it most of the time imo, same with strong overpairs, so I still think the river is a value bet.

On the river, it doesn't matter if he folds 90% of the time to your bet, that 10% he calls you get value since you are supposed to have him beat about 99.99% of the time. If you have the second nuts when your opponent never has the nuts, would you not bet because he won't call too often?!

The fact is you are not repping too much so he can find a call with a hand like 6x, 77, 8x, 99, TT, maybe even JJ if he didn't 3bet flop. With QQ+ I think he 3bets flop and stacks off.

The benefit of checking back is getting info on a reg where you are not sure about the value of a bet. However, betting gives you a very aggressive imagine and in his head you look like an aggro monkey and will think you bluff a lot and will never consider you are just aggressive with thin value hands.

It's easier to find hands that call afterwards than in game when you were thinking you are bluffing and all of a sudden you have a good hand, since the bluff was meant to make him fold quite a few hands you now want him to call. Since he would fold a lot of the time, now you get the impression there's no value in betting.

I doubt I can 3bet/jam AQo profitable w/o history on a more or less unknown reg-looking opponent on nl100. I'd rather flat those kind of hands to begin with until I've established an aggressive image that makes villain more inclinded to either call me lighter or 4bet.

In this spot(~20 hands against unknown reg) I'd rather prefer to 3bet the bottom of my foldingrange and a bunch of other randomahands until I have established an aggressive image, so I am pretty sure we don't have to 3bet AQo bvb with argument to "put pressure" on our opponent. I mean there are a bunch of other hands that is more suitable for that imo.

As for the riverplay, I think you are way to optimistic about his callingrange. It is very possible that I am too nitty in these spots, but I think I rep the flush and sets superhard if I bet turn and river here. I guess he will be calling with maybe 77+ with one hearts OTT, and most likely also the bigger pocketpairs w/o it. Then I don't think we can discount sets and flushes either (and twopairs, 86s?), even if it is at least more likely that he'd 3bet those on the flop. So I actually think most opponents (assuming they are nits like me :P) will fold all their one-pair OTR most of the time here, especially without any history or dynamics.

But this is just my 2 cents, and I could ofc be wrong

I think sets and strong draws 3bet flop so I that's why I give him a way weaker range than you do.

@AQo 3bet BvB: He opens about 25% AT LEAST in SB. If you don't 3bet AQ, what do you 3bet as part of your "value" polarized range?

Originally posted by axelphoney
I doubt I can 3bet/jam AQo profitable w/o history on a more or less unknown reg-looking opponent on nl100. I'd rather flat those kind of hands to begin with until I've established an aggressive image that makes villain more inclinded to either call me lighter or 4bet.

In this spot(~20 hands against unknown reg) I'd rather prefer to 3bet the bottom of my foldingrange and a bunch of other randomahands until I have established an aggressive image, so I am pretty sure we don't have to 3bet AQo bvb with argument to "put pressure" on our opponent. I mean there are a bunch of other hands that is more suitable for that imo.

As for the riverplay, I think you are way to optimistic about his callingrange. It is very possible that I am too nitty in these spots, but I think I rep the flush and sets superhard if I bet turn and river here. I guess he will be calling with maybe 77+ with one hearts OTT, and most likely also the bigger pocketpairs w/o it. Then I don't think we can discount sets and flushes either (and twopairs, 86s?), even if it is at least more likely that he'd 3bet those on the flop. So I actually think most opponents (assuming they are nits like me :P) will fold all their one-pair OTR most of the time here, especially without any history or dynamics.

But this is just my 2 cents, and I could ofc be wrong
I agree with Emanuel.

AQ is always 3bet for me, also vs unknowns. It's just the top of your range. If it's first 3bet vs unknown, I will fold to 4bet. I believe people will not bluff-4bet vs first 3bet vs unknown.

River is jackpot. Shove it! You hit one of your outs, why would you not bet? In my experience, people don't fold enough on the river. When you start betting lighter, you will be much harder to play against.

In general, you really have to open up your valuebetting-range imo. Preflop and river both show that you are probably too nitty.

Emanuel: Notice that I have only played 20 hands against this guy, at this point I 3bet superpolorised when I am up against a TAGish player. At this point I would probably 3bet him in this particular spot with maybe ~30% of all hands, and my default would be 3bet AK, JJ+ for value and go brooke with these against a 4bet. My reasoning for calling AQ is basically that it plays pretty decently IP, and if I 3bet I rarely expect him to call me with worse aces or queens. At least in my experience people are not callign 3bet very lightly oop without a reason.

lpdlamei: In my experience people actually seem to fold too much on the river, so that is why I am not sure whether to bet or not here. But I guess I am also a bit influensed by the result in the hand (ended up shoving and he snapped me with the nutflush ♦).

Overall though, I actually think I play far from nitty, but rather on the looser side. I used to have a leak of valuebetting too thinly actually, but I have gotten better at it, and who knows maybe I have become a little bit nitty after all ♦. Always hard to be objective about your own game.

Okay, I was judging your play by this hand only. Small sample size obv

I agree preflop really should be 3betting. Just for straight up value more than any worry of anything else, we're way ahead of his range that opens BvB, we're way ahead of his range that flats our 3bet and we're even prolly decent vs an unknown 5bet range BvB. So I agree, we need a good reason not to 3bet.

Keeping weaker Q* and A* in is a decent argument, but I'm an advocate of 3betting strong playable hands IP will never see you far wrong.

As played I'm not IN LOVE with the flop raise, I think you keep your range wider by floating plus you keep his weaker + you do actually have pretty good equity vs his cbet so I think it's an ideal spot to float, repping FD's all pairs, striaght draws etc. I think you will pick this pot up on a later street a lot + prolly make/have the best hand a decent amount - I think there are way better hands to bluff raise the flop with.

OTR, I agree it's a VBet, only thing that is sigh is we kinda over-repping our hand here which is never cool when we bet for value. Still think it's a bet though.

I agree preflop really should be 3betting. Just for straight up value more than any worry of anything else, we're way ahead of his range that opens BvB, we're way ahead of his range that flats our 3bet and we're even prolly decent vs an unknown 5bet range BvB. So I agree, we need a good reason not to 3bet.

Keeping weaker Q* and A* in is a decent argument, but I'm an advocate of 3betting strong playable hands IP will never see you far wrong.

As played I'm not IN LOVE with the flop raise, I think you keep your range wider by floating plus you keep his weaker + you do actually have pretty good equity vs his cbet so I think it's an ideal spot to float, repping FD's all pairs, striaght draws etc. I think you will pick this pot up on a later street a lot + prolly make/have the best hand a decent amount - I think there are way better hands to bluff raise the flop with.

OTR, I agree it's a VBet, only thing that is sigh is we kinda over-repping our hand here which is never cool when we bet for value. Still think it's a bet though.

Alright, so the conclussion is then 3bet > call, vbet river, and consider floating instead of raising due to good playability.

Originally posted by lilDave
I think there are way better hands to bluff raise the flop with.

Can you give any examples of better hands to bluffraise the flop?

I think A4dd is a better hand to bluff raise with, our kicker isnt strong enough to face barrells if we turn top pair and our straight draw is not disguised

Originally posted by CallumN
I think A4dd is a better hand to bluff raise with, our kicker isnt strong enough to face barrells if we turn top pair and our straight draw is not disguised

Yh, I'd pick something like this that has poorer immediate equity but with a gutshot/bdoor FD, even something like QJdd if you must, I think A Q high has just a little too much value here to be bluffing with

meh, I disagree with most people in the thread.

I think flatting pre is far superior vs alot of small stakes guys who played VERY well pre flop but terrible post flop, they have good ranges and will generally play TAG meaning 4b/f and won't peel as wide as you expect pre flop.

AQ plays extremely well vs their opening range and we have position. position+skillz+ace and a queen = very happy panda.

As played river is a fistpump value jam.

I thought about this hand some more (preflop) and was actually planning to write a longer post, but I think pleno1 sums it up prety good. Since people will play pretty solid pre, and not call too loosely without any good reason, we are essentially turning our hand into a bluff here if we decide to 3bet. We could just pick any Ax instead and 3bet as a bluff, since chances are he will never call any worse hands pre, so why "waste" a good hand alike AQo and turn it into a bluff when we can just call and play very well IP agaisnt a reasonably wide range?

ya, agree

3betting AQ here is defo defo not turning it into a bluff. Or if it is something has gone horribly wrong in the world somewhere.

I see the points though, I guess they make a lot of sense....Still not 100% convinced though.

It sounds weird, but I actually think our 3bet becomes a "bluff", if we go under the assumption that villain plays solid pre and will only play 4bet or fold, or occasionally slowplay better hands by just flatting. Then if we 3bet, basically AQo= A2o

We need some reads on villian but vs most i 3b/5b this bvb as my default