10NL AQ Hand Review
Pre-flop: 3-betting is a good play here, and if we're going down that route, the sizing is great, I'd for about $0.90-$1 as well. We don't have any data on the BTN, so we'll assume he's raising quite wide, as is usual for his position. It is noteworthy that he's not full-stacked though, leads me to think he might be a fish. We'll say he's raising something like 22+, A4o+, A2s+, K9o+, K2s+, Q9o+, Q5s+, J9o+, J7s+, T9o, 54s+, 64s+, 85s+. Since you can afford to open wide on the BTN, and we like to keep range analysis as wide as possible so we don't get any nasty surprises, that seems fair.
Now, obviously a lot of this is junk and is going to fold to a 3-bet. Usually, against an unknow, I'd split my play between 3-betting and calling from the BB about 50/50, partly for range-balancing and partly because there's really not going to be that much difference; assuming you're relatively skillful compared to the population, both are going to be profitable plays. Since this guy is a bit fishy (we think, because he's short stacked) I actually prefer flatting in this spot. We keep him in the pot with his entire range and force him to see a flop with a bunch of trashy hands, which we have crushed. We're dominating him quite a lot here, because he has a lot of Ax and Qx in his range. This type of player, with this stack, is never going to fold top pair, and often not second pair either, so I think we make more money by calling, and stacking him quite often on an Axx, Qxx, AKx, type flop than by 3-betting and forcing out all of his rubbish hands. See what I mean? We always have to think about the best move for this particular situation, not just what we usually do in this spot.
As played (as I said, the 3-bet is by no means a bad play, I just slightly prefer calling for the reasons above), he calls. His range probably tightens significantly here. We'll give him a range of 88-QQ, ATo+, A4s+, KJo+, K7s+, QJo, Q9s+, J8s+, 87s+, 97s and T7s. I've taken out a lot of small pairs and suited connectors which I would usually include in a calling range for BTN v a 3-bet from the BB because he's short and doesn't have anywhere near the implied
odds to call with them.
Flop: I think a c-bet is good. The BTN still has a very wide range, and a lot of these hands have decent
equity against you on this board. A bet will fold out random overs that might outdraw you, whilst getting value from heart draws, straight draws and A-high. I have no idea why you bet so large though, in 3-bet pots it's normal to bet smaller, because the SPR (stack to pot ratio) is smaller. I'm betting about $0.8-$0.9 here. With your sizing, we can't get called by many worse hands.
Now, you get re-raised all-in. This could be a pair, or a draw. We have to work out what the balance is. Now, I think it's unlikely he has a 6x or 5x hand here, because he wasn't getting the right price to call those hands pre-flop, not even close. 55,66 are also unlikely because he probably doesn't call pre-flop, and he probably just calls the flop bet, because there's no need for him to be scared of the draws. I don't think he does this as a total
bluff much, seeing as your huge bet would usually be an indicator of strength. So, that leaves overpairs (there are 27 combos of 88-QQ in the range I've given him) and flush draws (35 combos). We can't guarantee he raises with some weaker flush draws on a paired board though, so I'd say it's about 60/40 in favour of overpairs to FDs here.
Now, against most overpairs here (apart from QQ, although I think he probably shoves this pre-flop anyway), we have two overs, and 23% equity, so we're not dead here. Against a NFD , we have 71% equity. If we take into account the times he just goes mental and tries to bluff you with a hand like KQ or AT, we have 47% equity in the pot. There's already $8.20 in the pot, and we have to call $2.91. Our
pot odds are 2.82 to 1, which means we could profitably call up to $7.21 here. Calling this bet is a no-brainer, even if we only think he has flush draws half the time I've suggested he does.
I'm guessing based on the runout, you lost this pot. I think he probably had a flush draw though, a hand like AhTh maybe.