weird spot

What is our calling range here? No reads on villain, played about 30 hands, mostly action is someone raises everyone folds

Submitted by : pluzich

PokerStars Game #63766918139: Tournament #404554105, $20+$2 USD Holdem No Limit - Level VIII (150/300) - 2011/06/25 14:53:22 CET [2011/06/25 8:53:22 ET]
Table 404554105 201 6-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: BubblBoi (11953 in chips)
Seat 2: mr. kater (16924 in chips)
Seat 3: Hero (17344 in chips)
Seat 4: Rykop (18249 in chips)
Seat 5: fourassesMH (14557 in chips)
Seat 6: e13crucial (20249 in chips)
BubblBoi: posts the ante 25
mr. kater: posts the ante 25
Hero: posts the ante 25
Rykop: posts the ante 25
fourassesMH: posts the ante 25
e13crucial: posts the ante 25
mr. kater: posts small blind 150
Hero: posts big blind 300

Holecards
Dealt to Hero
Rykop: folds
fourassesMH: folds
e13crucial: folds
BubblBoi: raises 430 to 730
mr. kater: calls 580
Hero: raises 1225 to 1955
BubblBoi: folds
mr. kater: raises 14944 to 16899 and is all-in
Hero: folds
Uncalled bet (14944) returned to mr. kater
mr. kater said, "new move by me its not balanced though ..."
mr. kater collected 4790 from pot
mr. kater: doesnt show hand

Summary
Total pot 4790 | Rake 0
Seat 1: BubblBoi (button) folded before Flop
Seat 2: mr. kater (small blind) collected (4790)
Seat 3: Hero (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: Rykop folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 5: fourassesMH folded before Flop (didnt bet)
Seat 6: e13crucial folded before Flop (didnt bet)

why did you 3bet this?

calling range is QQ+ AK

I thought btn would be folding a lot and I would be IP vs SB with initiative or take it down. In case btn calls I have a hand to play.

are you 3betting 87s or 67s?

maybe 3betting is good, but id happily flat knowing it ll be a three way flop

fwiw his calling range to your 3bet dominates your range, so im not 100% sure about the 'still have a hand to play' argument

there are tons of opinions on betsizing and i really like whoosel's sizing. hopefully he ll comment, but i think you need to raise bigger when you squeeze here.
i think you should have made your raise 2500 to 3000 instead of under 2k. you have to build more fold equity in that spot, because you really dont want action to continue once you elected to raise

I largely agree with chris. I don't think I'm calling with worse than qq/ak - definitely not with aq. and I normally just flat here, not that I think it's a horrible 3bet spot or anything, not at all. but normally I'd flat. I think tjs is more of a hand that benefits from having lots of chips behind postflop than one where you want the pot to be bloated pre.. obviously you frequently take it down preflop, but then you also should probably make it a bit larger.

Thanks for the responses guys. I understand that its std. to flat JTs in this spot but I had a feeling btn was kind of scared/inexperienced and would fold a lot if I squeeze. That was the reason I did it.

Chris could you drop a link/summarize whoosel's sizing?

he doesnt have a chart or anything, he just always has really good sizing with great reasons for it. search his name in the hands listings and look through some hands he posts. excellent tourney poster. wish we still had more good tourney posters

i can say that the 730 raise is ~ 2.5x the bb, so i would make it 3 times the 2.5x bb raise to account for 3 players in the hand, and 3x antes in the pot to account for them, to give us something around 2550. that is why i like that sizing. it also leaves 1800ish to call instead of 1200ish giving you a bit more fold equity

and really since its a squeeze you might even add another BB in the raise for good measure

i think the sizing's not bad since you have position on the guy most likely to flat (the sb) and we want him to call with a lot of crap like broadway cards and small pairs OOP and if you raise small like this you can still have fold equity over a small check raise if you cbet small too. i'd prob do that size if it was just a raise and no flat though and more like 2100-2200 for a squeeze. As far as calling ranges go, i think you guys are too narrow. It's button vs blinds so i think after you squeeze he can easily be jamming like 77+ AJo+. I think i'd prob call if i had any pair that I was raising for value which would prob be 88+ but i'd usually flat that, so 99+ AQs+...Also as far as IF it should be 3bet in the first place, i would 3bet some and flat some depending on game flow; it's personal preference. I think it's good to mix it up and not always do the same thing with a hand like JTs.

Thanks for taking time and spilling knowledge wh00sel. Amazing wisdom-per-word ratio