[fivebyfive]

So first off, these are great questions. You’re narrowing in on challenging preflop decisions and trying to figure out the optimal play. Here are my thoughts on three spots.

Spot 1: I’m just assuming from context that these are in sequential order and we’re deep. But since there wasn’t a stack depth, my answer would change depending. But let’s assume this is early and we’re ~100bb effective. This is going to be one of those spots where a solver will mix between flats and 3bets, but prefer flats. On the GTO charts I’m looking at we’re raising 13% of the time with this hand and calling 87% of the time (never folding). But we don’t always play against GTO opponents, so we can lean toward a call here, but we also have to adjust via our reads. What have we observed from villain so far? Are they opening a lot, or not that much? Are they playing fit or fold postflop or taking aggressive lines? Have they shown down any hands, and what does this tell us about their strategies? If any of this was pointing to someone who is being too wide and passive in their approach, I can get on board with a raise here more. If we do raise, I’m raising big and folding to any further aggression. If they’re an absolute nit, I could find a fold against that strength, but I’d need to see some extreme play before doing that. Absent any of that kind of info, this is pretty much an auto-call for me.

Spot 2: Blind v blind is one of the most complicated spots to grasp and play well. I think this is fine to complete or raise with. Once we do complete and V checks, we have to remember the situation. As the SB, we have the postflop advantage when it goes complete and check. Even in GTO world, we have 55% equity and I don’t think most players play GTO from the BB here (GTO would require that the BB raises their absolute best and worst hands, so unless we think V is capable of raising a hand like 83o, now they’re much more weighted toward trash because they are raising their best hands and calling with all their trash). If they’re a more standard big blind player who doesn’t raise their trash, we’ll have ~60-65% equity here across our entire range. With this specific hand, we have 78% equity. We need to bet (IMO) except against tough or wild opponents. But once we check, this is the line I take. We can sometimes fold this turn in the right spot, but I can’t really imagine folding once we hit this river, but we’re not really accomplishing much by raising (does Q9 fold? does JT call? both seem unlikely, so I don’t see a reason to raise).

Spot 3: Again, opponent dependent, but this is a fine shove in most spots. If the opener is earlier (like UTG), this becomes more of a fold or call, but from MP this is a good spot to accumulate chips with a hand that has lots of equity against almost all holdings. I’m shoving here unless I have a reason not to.

[black_spruce]

Thanks.

Yes, sequential hands and deep-stacked in Spot #1. I mini-tanked before folding. I just had visions of getting into trouble if I flopped a pair or a draw, but I didn’t feel good about folding. (I would have called if suited.) I felt I was going to be at a post-flop skill disadvantage. I’d say he was opening slightly more than his share and getting to showdown less than the average via strong post-flop play. Not a nit or passive and not a maniac, just a very good, solid player.

Spot 2: I guess my default is to check post-flop when out of position if I wasn’t the pre-flop aggressor. That may be a flawed default generally and/or re blind v blind specifically. Makes sense now that a bet on the flop may have gotten V to fold his 97o, although he had a straight draw, and got there on the turn (which is where, in retrospect, I should have folded).

Spot 3: I struggle with suited Wheel cards pre-flop when awkward stacked. 16BB with a pair or two cards J+, I’m reshoving. I’ve recently introduced A5s into my 3-betting range. A2s, I’m probably folding. But, A3s and A4s, in particular, I grapple with what to do.

Thanks again.