1/2: Am I being too passive vs whales?

Assume whale you mean a huge passive fish?
Vs a whale, we'd only want to go for thick value only, and bluff very little?

Even if your whale had some aggro tendencies, they still have 0 fold button. Which means you want to go for thick value only again.

If anything, I'd just play like a nit vs whales. We can even extract the thinnest value but bluffing whales seems to be most -ev line.

Let's make some random assumptions.
Assume the whale you are talking about is something like 90/5?
Also assume he's never folding flop with all his open range?

If all these assumptions are correct then maybe 3betting against such tight opening range maybe spewy or too thin? Cbetting on such flop may be a punt???

Now assume whale is something like 90/20
3betting w/AK is gin for the best value ever.
Then cbetting maybe okish? but whale still might never folds to a single cbet in hu pot?
Then I guess we can just randomly barrel off a whale then when you find out whale calling you down with random marginal hands you'd realize you're the fish in the game now.

It's very counter intuitive to not 3bet ak, and to not cbet on paired board as pfr. But at the end of the day, it's very villain dependent.

We 3bet ak, because AK is a strong hand preflop, for value/bluff. Taking it down preflop is good or seeing a flop and cbetting and taking it down is good as well.
But when opponent has super tight opening range, imho, 3betting ak and bloating the pot might not be the best play.

Cbetting on paired board is very standard because we have lots of fold equity, we have range advantage etc. etc.
But when villain's range is strong preflop, and he's super sticky, he's never folding to a single cbet in a million years.
I guess you can argue you can barrel off and pretend you have AQ??? Whale doesn't care if you have AQ or AK or QQ, he only look at his 2 cards and call call call. Even if he finds a fold it's because he has a worse hand than ak.

I don't think you can categorize whale as a playing style. OMC is a playing style that happens to fit a lot of old men, but it's a style that young Asian females can play.

One day a super whale in 2/5 was making a blind bet pre of 1 buy in everyhand till he burned thru $15K. I think that is as aggro as anyone can ever be.

I've played with other whales that were passive pre but max sticky and always seemed surprised that his JT suited on a board with a T wasn't good enough to take down the pot when his V was AI on the turn.

I think the most common whale tendency I've seen is that they will pay any price to draw to a nut flush.

I think against *this* whale you are not being too passive. But the adjustment you need to make is that you should rarely ever be calling turn to fold river.

The JJ hand was a better time to call down than now with AK. I think here it is fine to fold. Just because you missed a call earlier does not mean you try to make up for it now.

Grunch:

A few thoughts about adjustments you might consider when facing a V like this...

1. Don't raise or 3B as much pre when you'll be OOP post. I'd be really tightening up on my raising range when he's behind me and we're likely to see a flop. I'd be going super linear, not polar. We just want to out-hand him.

2. Raise bigger pre. He's sticky, especially when he's in position. Make him pay to out draw you.

3. Don't c-bet as often or as much when OOP. He's likely to bet whenever he has value or a good draw, and he might stab with air. We can check-raise the $hlt out of opponents who call too wide pre, and stab too often post. His bet sizing will very often telegraph his hand strength. If he wants to punt with his bluffs, it's fine. He doesn't know when we're checking to check call or check raise.

4. Check-call more, across multiple streets, with a wider range. He plays too many hands pre, so he'll naturally over-bluff post.

5. Don't c-bet any flop if you don't plan to barrel turn if he calls. When he calls, be prepared to play a check or over-bet strategy, where your checks will be a mix of check-folds, check-calls, and check-raises.

6. Try to use bigger bet sizes on earlier streets, to charge him the max to realize his equity, and set up more two-street gams where we can just over-bet jam turns.

7. Over-bet jam turns, a lot. He is waiting for you to slow down and check on a scare card so he can steal the pot. He won't always be bluffing with a worse hand. He's the type to have a lot of AXo and other trash hands and bet weak top pairs if he senses weakness. He'll view any over-card to the board as a good card for him to bluff if you check.

8. When we have position on him, check back a lot of turns with SDV. He'll over-bluff rivers from OOP. Plan to call anytime he bets 2/3 pot or less when the pot is bigger. If it's small, he might go 2x pot. Focus on absolute bet size more than bet size relative to the pot.

9. Tilt him. Make him show first. Muck face up when you know he has it. Dare him to show you a bluff. If you know he has 85 and turned a straight, say "85 is good" as you muck. Then say, "well played." If you know he's on a draw, call it out before the turn or river card hits. Make sure he knows you see through him, and you know he's splashing around, trying to look wild, but you also know he doesn't have the BIG bluff in him, and he lacks real courage.

10. Understand he bluffs in spots where it's easy to bluff, and bets for value in spots where it's hard to bluff. Any time he can have a ton of bluffs, call. Any time he can have lots of value, fold.

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Case in point, I wouldn't fold JJ in that earlier hand. I don't care about the ace on the turn. Especially not when he bets the same amount we bet on the flop. I'd assume he was weak at that point, and prepare to check-call up to a pot size river bet.

In this hand...

PRE - don't 3B him with AKo. He's not folding. Just flat call, under-rep your hand, and try to get to showdown.

FLOP - don't c-bet this board with air. Definitely don't c-bet 1/2 pot in a 3BP on a QQx two-tone board. Either go huge and check-fold turn, or bet 1/4 pot. But mostly I'd just check.

TURN - his "see one more" speech is a tell. He's strong, and is saying that to sound weak. Notice he "same bet" you in the earlier hand when he was weak, and it was less than 1/3 pot. Now he's betting 2/3 pot. It's kind of obvious he's setting up a river jam. I'd snap fold and tell him "show me a bluff", then smile as he slides his cards in face down.

Basically, you're playing into his hands by trying to bluff him or go for thin value. Don't do that. He likes to play the role of the bully. The only way to slow him down is to snap him off when he's OOL. Make him fear you when you check, not when you bet.

Once he starts checking back with all his draws and air, start betting thin and over-folding when he bets big, a sure sign he's desperate to get value and is trying to look wild again.

You could simplify and just check range to him. Call with SDV when he bets small, fold when he bets big, x/r with your draws and air whenever he bets small, click it back with your monsters, etc. Just be a pain in his a$$. He'll tilt and punt off his stack within 2 hours.

I would have bet the turn, but you induced this guy to bet, so now I would call. Pressuring the turn is what mediocre hands & medium showdown hands hate most.

Gutshot, overcards, nut flush blocker, you’re rarely drawing dead. Villain could bet random floats, flush draws, lot of thin value hands.

Check-raising is unnecessary as better hands call, and worse hands fold. Go ahead and realize your equity:

Hit Broadway
Improve to top pair
Bluff some cards
Bluff-catch some bricks

Not crazy about limp/3! with AK. I would bet the turn with probable outs. As played, I would fold to the turn bet.

Deader than chivalry, given reads + speech, and too shallow to effectively bluff, even without those reads.

Starting flop with a check, even knowing they'll probably stab. I don't dislike the 3!, even considering they're going to defend everything. This is just a bad flop for us, unless you've been 3! KQ/AQ. If you were, I might downbet and hope they spazzed.

AP, what's your estimate of % they've a Q here, after flop action? Mine's that it's really high.