AK, AA, KK, QQ on the BB/SB Facing a 3bet

I come across this situation often. CO raises to 3bb and btn 3bets to 9bb. (Full stacks).

I am on the sb or bb with a big hand. QQ+.

The btn stats would indicate he has a fairly wide 3betting range on the button (8-11% overall), so obviously i crush his range most of the time.

The original raiser is also decent, regular.

Issues are:

1) cold 4betting = super strong, I actually prefer to do this as a bluff if anything. With somthing id never call with like KQo, KJo, ATo.
I dont expect to get action of anything but QQ+. Maybe the odd setmine from a fishy reg...

2) flatting, im OOP and my hand is only 1 pair(QQ,KK,AA). If i have AK I think flatting is okay because we dominate alot of the 3bettors range and
can punish them postflop. But we are OOP and playing OOP sucks postflop. Its usually gonna be a check/call if we hit a king, hope they check back then
fire the river for value. Or shove some drawy flops I guess?


Thoughts overall?

fyi, im probably flatting the rest of my range here.

The biggest problem with this situation is balance and perceived imbalances. An unknown reg will put heavy weight for JJ/QQ in your range if you flat so watch out for that. I personally almost never overcall 3bets OOP (unless the open raiser is a fish) and cold 4bet with either balanced or exploitable ranges depending on opponents/situation.

Given that you rarely get action apart from when villains have QQ+ having a very polarized, bluff heavy range would be best until they realise (if ever) and then adjust, at which point you can just decrease the amount of bluffs in your range. A more interesting question, I think, would be what you would do with AQs/JJ etc?

If I have AQs in the blinds versus two standard regs I just turn my hand into a 4b bluff (if I don't feel like I can get it in profitably). At SSNL anyway I think the times you flop top pair you are basically holding a bluff catcher and are lucky to get more than one street of value from your hand.

JJ I'd usually fold (reasoning I'm not holding any blockers to QQ+/AK) or 4b/get it in if I feel like it's a close spot [e.g. reg MP opens, reg CO 3bets]. I hate the thought of flatting a 3b OOP with JJ since so many flops contain an overcard and I'm definitely -EV at deciding when to call turn/river barrels when the flop goes c/c

I'd like to close it down and take the 9bb+3bb+(sb or bb) without any more cards,
or make the weaker hands pay the full price to draw, so I would be shoving.
In the unlikely event it gets called by monster Aces or Kings that's just unlucky.
If it gets called by a weaker hand that goes on to improve at least I would have the satisfaction of knowing that I got it in good.
But usually I would expect it to hold up and pay off commensurate with the risk taken.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by chemist

I'd like to close it down and take the 9bb+3bb+(sb or bb) without any more cards,
or make the weaker hands pay the full price to draw, so I would be shoving.
In the unlikely event it gets called by monster Aces or Kings that's just unlucky.
If it gets called by a weaker hand that goes on to improve at least I would have the satisfaction of knowing that I got it in good.
But usually I would expect it to hold up and pay off commensurate with the risk taken.

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You risk 99bb to win 12bb?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by chemist

I'd like to close it down and take the 9bb+3bb+(sb or bb) without any more cards,
or make the weaker hands pay the full price to draw, so I would be shoving.
In the unlikely event it gets called by monster Aces or Kings that's just unlucky.
If it gets called by a weaker hand that goes on to improve at least I would have the satisfaction of knowing that I got it in good.
But usually I would expect it to hold up and pay off commensurate with the risk taken.

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Pay full price to draw? All you're doing is forcing his weaker hands to fold, and making it really easy for him to only call stuff that beats you. You're also making live players fold AK which gives you most of your equity if their calling range is AK+ QQ+

I don't overly mind flatting here if we're confident post flop against 2 players, but I think we're going to get in a lot of nasty spots so I'd only want to this against really weak players where we can just lead flop or c/r jam flop and they'll call top pair. 4bet calling makes it a lot easier to play and I think as long as we very occasionally (like 1 out of 20) try and throw in a light cold 4bet then we can balance our range as cold 4bet bluffs tend to be very memorable.