JJ versus capper on A-high flop

[Guy McSucker]

Pocket Jacks. Six handed game. Villain is TAGish but capable of getting out of line/making moves. He's quite annoying but no genius.

UTG folds, MP open raises, Hero three-bets, folded to MP who caps. Hero calls.

Flop is A T 9 rainbow. Villain leads out.

Hero...?

Guy.

[Keepitsimple]

I would fold but I am very interested to hear others opinion.

[wackjob]

I think if your opponent is decent enough to pay attention you must mix it up. Sometimes I will raise here, sometimes fold, sometimes call. I don't think there is a great line. It also depends on what you've seen him do in the past with a PP with a raised overcard on the board.

[AviD]

Would he cap ANY pocket pair in this spot? If not that greatly reduces your chances of having the best hand.

You are crushed by AK/AQ/AJ/AT/A9/TT/99 but ahead of KT/KQ/KJ/JT/88-22.

Really comes down to his range of capping hands and if he's wacky or tilt-o-whirling enough to cap any additional silly hands here.

He's raising a bit early, so I'd imagine a possible capping range to be AA-66/AK/AQ/AJs/KQs.

You are ahead of few of these hands, and it really depends on what calling is going to get you here on the flop. Will he still fire with 88-66 or KQs here on the turn or will he fear a raise from you since you smoothcalled the flop?

I'd probably call the flop and re-evaluate on the turn, but I really don't think there is a standard line here. Folding seems best most of the time, but it also feels weak as anyone with wide capping standards can easily push you off hands. So mix it up, call and re-evaluate some of the time, sometimes fold the flop, sometimes fold the turn, sometimes call it down. Boils down to your feel of the player and their respective range of hands in conjunction with their postflop agg with those respective hands. Either way, it's not an easy hand to play, and unfortunately its easy to get out played by tricky and out of line players making moves, but you can't go wrong calling down here some of the time and getting more info about his capping standards as well as his postflop play with those hands. I'd be far more prone to call if that A didn't flop, since that includes a wide range of his hands naturally.

[Ryan11]

I raise here to see how he reacts, then go from there. Sometimes you can get a free card on the turn with a flop raise.

[Guy McSucker]

[ QUOTE ]

Folding seems best most of the time, but it also feels weak as anyone with wide capping standards can easily push you off hands.


[/ QUOTE ]

That's true, and that's just the point. I think the nine and ten on board really hurt us here.

Guy.

[AviD]

I think the A, T, and 9 all really reduce your chances of having the best hand here. The two ones you hope he holds PF are 99 and TT, but obviously not on this flop. The more I think about it, the more I like folding and just moving on. There are just too many hands we are behind on this flop and those we are ahead of we can't do much more than call down. You won't really know where you stand until the turn or river if he happens to check, in which case you have zero comfort level in betting for value or to protect vs a tricky opponent. If he has KQ, he's not calling a river bet, and your best hope is he has 88-66 and will call a bet, but it's doubtful with all overcards out there and the PF action. So you are going to call the flop and turn and check through the river to win the min those times you are ahead, or invest more than you want to call down including a river bet those times you are behind. He could continue to bet the whole way with a hand you are way behind, but how often will he push that edge, especially if he's been moving you off hands, he knows you are going to hit something and call him down eventually.

[ToneLoc]

Seems like an easy fold to me against a TAGish opponent.
If he pays too much respect to your play you might try the raise, but the risk-reward doesn't seem quite right here does it?

[mscags]

Easy fold IMO, what hand range to you put yourself ahead of here besides possibly TT?

[AviD]

How is he ahead of TT?