[Galwegian]

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If you've been 3-betting him a lot I'd just 3-bet here and hope he pushes over the top with a weaker hand.

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definitely. This is correct and I don't think there is a good second best option. As played I might vbet the rive for like $60.

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I think a lot of times we tailor our "balancing acts" towards aggression, whereas I think there are a lot of times when we can tailor it towards passiveness. We have deep stacks here, and I can use my position to my advantage here. The larger the pot gets in porportion to the stacks, the less my position means to me. I can really get him thinking in these spots with plays like this which allow me to get free cards and showdowns with other hands and so forth. I'm calling here with a LOT of hands PF. I would be doing so with suited 2 gappers, suited aces, unsuited connectors, pps and so forth.


That's my $.02 anyway.

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It's an interesting point. I think that by cold calling preflop, you are essentially converting your QQ into 99/TT - a hand that can't really take much postflop heat.

I'm not sure that I see how you gain value against his range by coldcalling. OK, you get some extra value from hands like AT/AJ that will pay you off a bit when the kicker hits, but you lose value to weaker aces or kings that will fold preflop to reraise. You say that you can get use your position to get him in difficult spots, but is it not just as likely that you will end up in a tricky spot with an ace or K on the board (as actually happened). Lets not forget that the object of the game is not to get him thinking (he might be a very good thinker, after all), it is to get him to put his money in with the worst of it.

At the end of the day, you have a strong preflop holding, it can't be that wrong to try to get money in when you are definitely ahead.