10NL: Top two pair, ugly board, donk bets all 'round

[Gobbatino]

Villain is 19/13/1.9 taggy player. He seem to be not very positionally aware, saw him show down stuff like QJs JTs from UTG/UTG+1 sort of stuff. The reason I just called the flop is I figured he was trying to protect his AQ, AJ, KJ, QJ type of hands (TT maybe), of course he could also have JJ/99 in which case I'm way behind and raising would be spew. Was that a bad line? As played, wtf do I do in this spot? If I follow my line of thinking that he's protecting one of those hands, then I think he wouldn't be coming out betting on the turn with a the 8c that just completed every draw and his mother. Halp.

Absolute/UB Cereus No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (5 handed) - Absolute/UB Cereus Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (Button) ($12.17)
SB ($13.08)
BB ($19.70)
UTG ($10.11)
MP ($7.17)

Preflop: Hero is Button with A, J
UTG bets $0.35, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.35, SB calls $0.30, 1 fold

Flop: ($1.15) J, 9, A (3 players)
SB checks, UTG bets $1.15, Hero calls $1.15, 1 fold

Turn: ($3.45) 8 (2 players)
UTG bets $2.22, Hero ???

[Carroters]

Fold pre-flop AJ is dominated a lot by his opening range from there. Now you've got that flop I see absolutely no reason why you wouldnt want to get it in, AA and JJ are pretty damn statistically unlikely and you're way ahead of his stacking off range here that'll likely mainly include AKs and AQs. If he has an underpair, he'll likely shut down on the turn anyway so just go ahead and raise up this flop and try to get your money in, it's defo not a spew.

You say raising vs JJ and 99 would be a spew, well yeah if you saw his cards it obv would be, but you need to play vs his range not 2 unlikely tiny parts of it.

[Gobbatino]

Fold pre-flop AJ is dominated a lot by his opening range from there.

I definitely would normally, but since I'd seen him showdown a relatively wide UTG/UTG+1 range, I thought I might be good with position.

Now you've got that flop I see absolutely no reason why you wouldnt want to get it in, AA and JJ are pretty damn statistically unlikely and you're way ahead of his stacking off range here that'll likely mainly include AKs and AQs. If he has an underpair, he'll likely shut down on the turn anyway so just go ahead and raise up this flop and try to get your money in, it's defo not a spew.

You say raising vs JJ and 99 would be a spew, well yeah if you saw his cards it obv would be, but you need to play vs his range not 2 unlikely tiny parts of it.

Well in retrospect I totally agree and I'm sure you're right. The "I'm either way behind or way ahead so I can extract more value by calling if I am ahead" line is no good then?

[Fnord]

Pre-flop and flop is fine.

All-in on the turn.

:Kc: No g00t

[DaD01ng]

I'd actually call his turn bet and hope he bets big on river so I can shove over provided it's not another club or a K/Q/T

I think your preflop call is alright if he's not positionally aware

[JKDS]

I'd actually call his turn bet and hope he bets big on river so I can shove over provided it's not another club or a K/Q/T

thats alot of cards, and exactly why we want to shove the turn.

also AJ has enough equity to justify calling in position pre especially 5 handed.

[spoonitnow]

Preflop is fine, raise flop imo

[surviva316]

showing down QJs/JTs from UTG doesn't make him sound not positionally aware to me, since it's five handed. doesn't mean you should fold pre, just pointing it out.

definitely raise the flop. you pwn his continuing range, and like half the deck is scare cards. as played i have a hard time stomaching folding the turn because we still have so much of his range beaten, but continuing is dicey. we never want to call/call/fold on blank river in this spot, so a call stacks us off, so we might even just be pushing or folding. yuck, you see why you should raise on the flop?