Villain Shoves, Fold paired A ? (Scary board)

Maybe good to post your own though procces as well over this hand.

It's to bad we don't have any stats on him, but if I would 3bet you can easy make it around 15bb out of position against a big raise and a call. Now you clicking him back and than you don't have any fold equity.

Also your Cbet sizing is way to small I think. You can easy bet around half pot and fold to a raise or shove.

Cheers,
SDK1987

the only thing in my thought process was that the board. I mean basically I was completely scared by KQ. Otherwise why he should shoves all-in? (I got scared by this board very often)

He can easy have 2 pair or better indeed, but you don't want that he's thinking that you are weak with a 1/4 pot bet.

Given no information on the villain, I'd easily fold this hand and not feel even just a little bad about it. It'd be interesting to observe, though, whether it's his usual playing style in which case you should have called.

Originally posted by LeMahdi
PokerStars - €0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 4 players

CO: 138.5 BB
BTN: 47 BB
Hero (SB): 102 BB
BB: 132.5 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A♦ Q♠

CO raises to 3.5 BB, BTN calls 3.5 BB, Hero raises to 6 BB, fold, CO calls 2.5 BB, fold

Flop: (16.5 BB, 2 players) J♠ T♣ A♠
Hero bets 4 BB, CO raises to 132.5 BB and is all-in, fold

CO wins 23 BB

Preflop:
First of all, you should increase your 3bet sizings, especially OOP. By only raising an extra 2.5 BB you're giving villain and cold caller a fantastic price to call with their entire range. You want to charge small pairs to set mine, and these hands are very vulnerable OOP with such a high SPR. You're also going to miss the flop around 60% of the time, meaning you will have to check/fold a lot of flops, when you could have just scooped the pot preflop if you had made a bigger raise. And even when you do hit, our life sucks if we get raised with such a high SPR. Out of position I would raise 4x the initial raise (12 BB) plus 1x for every cold caller, so in this case 15 BB, to charge both players in the pot.

Flop:
I don't like betting here - unless he has some weak ace rag combos, what do we expect him to call with that we're beating? Sure, he might call with Jx or Tx but most players will just fold their second/third pairs here, as your range contains a ton of Ax. Secondly, this isn't a hand we can realistically get more than two streets of value from on this board texture, so I would check/call flop, or if he checks back then bet the turn and river for value if it bricks out. If he has a set or two pair on the flop then he should always bet, since the board is extremely draw heavy and there are a lot of bad turn cards. If he checks back the flop, we can be pretty confident you have the best hand unless he plays it extremely tricky. Nevertheless, this is NL2 and when players show a lot of strength, they're usually not bluffing. Especially when he jams 92 BB effective into a 20.5 BB pot - against an unknown player, this is a snap fold. Only hands we're ahead of are flush draws, and there can't be many in his range. We can't even be sure if he does this with draws.

One more thing I'd like to talk about is the bet sizing you used on the flop - it's very small and gives draws a great price to continue. It also looks very weak, and a good player could exploitatively raise you off the pot. As I discussed in the previous paragraph, I prefer a check here - however, if you're going to bet, make it bigger, around 60% pot.

Overall, good fold. Tag this player, add a note that he gets very excited with his nutted hands, and look for better spots.

I'm a micro fish myself, and here is my exploit line.

When you 3bet PF, and cbet on flop, fold to any raise bigger than 2.5X. Just fold, unless you have a set, or really good ev hand.

I used to make excuses not to fold, however, it works both ways. Your typical opp in NL2 would 3bet JJ+, AJs+ and cbet any connect flop, and when you raise or push with 8-set or two pair, he will call and pay it back to you.