[Matt Flynn]

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Lets say we are playing NL50 w/100bb effective stacks. 25/20/3 villian raises in the CO to $1.75. Hero in the SB reraises to $6 with AQo(SPR 3.5). Hero has put in 10% of his stack and now is at "commitment threshold." The flop comes Q72 rainbow(pot is 12.5). If hero bets $10.66 or more on the flop he has to go all the way. If he bets 8.50 on the flop, he can fold to a raise. What bet would be better based on this type of villian? I'm guessing that it would be better to commit to a LAG raising on the button. If villian was 15/10/2, would reraising less PF be a better play than a pot sized reraise? If we reraised PF to $5 it would have a SPR of @4.5. A flop bet of 8.5 into a $10 pot would provide more accurate information on villians hand. If it failed it would cost $1 less. And a smaller reraise PF can look awful scary to an opponent. I just read the book cover to cover today and am wondering how to apply it all.

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couple things here:

you would only raise to $6 if your opponent would still call with a wide range.

if you get 10% in preflop and flop top pair, presumably you set it up that way because you want to get all-in. if you don't, you raised too much preflop. an exception would be if opponent checkfolded nearly always when he missed, in which case you profit from raising bigger then c-betting nearly always.

even if you bet $10.66 and get raised you still have the option to lay down. that's a bad situation for you (conceding a third of your stack), so before you make that bet you should decide what you will do if raised and think about how often you will get raised by a weaker hand. if, for example, a raise meant a bigger hand than yours 90% of the time, you bet and happily fold to a raise.

sometimes additional information will change your decision. say, for example, you bet planning to commit and your opponent does something that makes you near-certain you are beat. it might be he makes a speech then hems and haws then raises - whatever. if you feel that new information is reliable enough, you can change your commitment decision. that's why we say you should make a "commitment plan" at the commitment threshold as opposed to a "commitment decision."

SPR allows for flexibility. nothing is set in stone. you set up a good situation preflop when you can, but then you still play poker.

sometimes you cannot hit your target SPR, such as with AQ in a typical 100bb online mid-stakes game. then you assess whether you still want to put a lot of money in preflop. if you'll win a lot even when you miss, put more money in. if you won't win a lot when you miss, shoot for less money in the pot preflop. that may mean limping or minraising. sometimes it means folding, but usually not with AQ.