PokerCoaching.com Quiz: A-Q Against A Tight Three-Bet

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You are playing nine-handed in $1,000 buy-in live no-limit hold’em tournament. Blinds are currently 300-500 with a big blind ante of 500. Action folds around to you in the lojack with A Q with a 32,000 chip stack.

Question 1: Should you fold, call, raise to 1,200, or raise to 1,800?

Answer: Raising to 1,200 or 1,800 are fine, but since you have under 100 big blinds, sizing down to 1,200 is the preferred play.

You raise it to 1,200. The cutoff, who is a very tight player with 25,000 chips three-bets to 3,000. Action folds back to you.

Question 2: Should you fold, call, or four-bet to 7,000?

Answer: Against a very tight three-bettor, A-Q is in marginal shape. Folding would be a bit too tight, but you definitely do not want to four-bet either for value or as a bluff. Calling is your only option.

You call and see a flop of 9 6 6 from out of position. You check to the preflop three-bettor who continuation bets 1,700, making the pot 9,000.

Question 3: Should you fold, call, or raise to 6,000?

Answer: Calling the flop without a decent made hand is often not ideal against a tight three-bettor, but since he will likely bet the flop with his entire range, you should continue given you beat some of his bluffs and are getting amazing pot odds. If the board contained a king, or if your opponent bet larger, folding would become ideal. Raising has no merit because your opponent will only continue when you are crushed.

You decide to call his c-bet. The turn is the J, and you and your opponent both check. The river is the 10.

Question 4: Should you check, bet 3,600, or bet 7,200?

Answer: Your instinct may be to check the river against this tight player and hope to win at the showdown, but your opponent probably would have continued betting the turn if they had top pair or better. This means he likely has worse than top pair.
Your problem is that you lose to many of those hands, such as 8-8 and A-K. However, those hands could easily fold to a medium river bet, making a bluff ideal if you are confident in your assessment of your opponent’s range.

You decide to bet 7,200 into a pot of 10,700. Your opponent folds A-K face-up and you win a tidy pot. ♠

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