Live $1/$2 NLHE — JJ facing a 4-bet shove after squeezing
Hero starts the hand with $250 on the BTN holding JJ. Villain has approximately $350 and is a middle-aged man. I had no relevant information on him.
Villain opens from UTG+2 to $10. Three players call.
Hero 3-bets to $50 from the BTN. Villain moves all-in almost immediately, covering Hero.
The three callers fold and the action returns to Hero.
Hero has $200 remaining.
Pot before Hero’s decision: approximately $333
Hero must call $200 to play for a final pot of approximately $533, so around 37.5% equity is required.
While the other players were folding, Villain kept giving Hero brief, furtive glances before looking away a few times. I was unsure whether this suggested strength, nervousness or nothing meaningful at all.
My main questions are:
- Is the squeeze to $50 the right play and sizing?
- Against an unknown live $1/$2 player, is JJ a call or fold versus this almost immediate 4-bet shove?
6 Replies
I think this is close but probably a call. Both the snap all in and inability to maintain eye contact are tells of weakness but I wouldn’t read too much into that. If he ever does this with tens this is a fist pump call.
Squeeze is good. Calling is bad. Size is fine, but you want to be flexible. Vs some players you might go bigger.
There certainly are players against whom this is a snap fold to the shove. However, here I think it's a pretty easy call, partly cuz you are at least perceived to be fos pretty often here.
Played it fine
Just my opinion but a quick shove leans towards AK. I prob wouldn’t do it, but the population likes shoving that hand.
Big pockets would be considering a little bit on the best way to get value.
On the other hand, if this is an inexperienced rec, he could play AA like this.
I’m probably the wrong one to give advice after I just posted a JJ played poorly, but I’m going to be the nit again against a complete unknown. I just don’t think it passes the ‘would he do this with TT’ test. That’s my read, but obviously some would do this with 55, their favorite hand.
He’s looking at you, because you’re his main threat so I’m not giving it a lot of weight.
You do have the equity to call vs AK. You’re a 57% favorite, but you’re still losing almost half the time. You don’t have the equity to call vs AA with less than a 20% chance to win.
I don’t like investing my money in uncertain situations, because I’m going to be barreling with the nuts soon. This guy jammed into four people, you have to take him seriously.
Hero must call $200 to play for a final pot of approximately $533, so around 37.5% equity is required.
Assuming this hand is played in a casino, you should subtract the rake from close spots like this. It is likely you need closer to 38% equity to profitably call off here. JJ has 36.19% equity against QQ+ AK. I would not assume that an unknown player is going to be any looser than that (if anything I would think it would be tighter). Is the live tell enough to weight him more towards AK than AA/KK? I don't think so. It could be a reverse tell or he could just be nervous with KK.
Squeeze size: I’m going at least 3x + dead callers = 60. I like sizing up a bit more to 75
I’m snap calling the 4b. Given the callers in between, V should be incentivized to 4b wider than if you were already heads up.
Played it fineJust my opinion but a quick shove leans towards AK. I prob wouldn’t do it, but the population likes shoving that hand. Big pockets would be considering a little bit on the best way to get value.On the other hand, if this is an inexperienced rec, he could play AA like this.I’m probably the wrong one to give advice after I just posted a JJ played poorly, but I’m goi
I ended up folding.
Villain seemed very pleased with the result and said that he had been hoping I would not call. He claimed to have had a small pocket pair like TT/99, and said that he thought my raise was simply a positional squeeze from the BTN.
On the very next hand, I raised to $50 again, this time holding AKs. The same Villain jokingly pretended that he was about to move all-in and started laughing looking at me. On top of that, another player, a loose tourist who was clearly there to gamble (he told me who wanna gamble?), then actually shoved. I called, and he showed 98s before making trips on the board.
Just one of those nights.
