Big 109. Sunday BB def.

Pre-flop seems like an easy fold against a TAG. You get often dominated against his range and this hand has only straight potential. On the turn I would just check to the better. With a 7x you would check I as well think and if you bet you would bet at least 1/3 pot I guess. Then you have a little bit less left.

Cheers,
SDK1987

First impression is that you took this one a bit too far and creative...

Defending your bb w A2o is fine obv (surely not an easy fold like suggested above)., but we should do it under the right conditions.
Here I'd incline a fold pf, mostly because there are ~3 reshove stacks behind the initial raiser. Therefore no reason to believe villain is (out of line) wide here. You say easy call, I think you might have missed the stack dynamics part. And above all, this would be a marginal play for sure, that could give us a lot of trouble. Villain seems tight and solid so far, so i'd more like a hand like 97o or 46s to defend. There will be much better opp. for us later on.

If a) all villains were all somewhat deeper and b) villain would have been CO or BTN, ranges would (should) be wider, so we now even have our A high value; this would make our defend better imo.

As played:
- I think this flop is a x/f most of the time. So also when we have a range advantage here on this board, we have almost no backdoor possibilities here. A lot of cards could give us trouble on later streets also.
- ott we are repping a 7 and only a 7 imo; but I think that card is actually very good for us in another way. If we were ahead pre, we would still be. And if villain was stabbing with his cbet, he'd probably will be less likely to fire again. A check seems better for me, betting most rivers if villain checks behind. folding to another bet ofc.
- otr I'm not sure. Question is: can we bluff him off his Jx hands or 88-TT?

Thanks Okkernootje, nice reply.

Yeah stack dynamics dont allow much room to maneuver which should lead to little more cautioun and he is opening little more tight while there are reshove stacks but he will despite that have raise folds in his range. I am comfortable to defend with this hand even i could be dominated which is range wise a advantage bec he is less likely to hit an ace...and we can just let the ranges play out on certain board textures.

Yeah vs BU/CO the showdown value increases, and we can be more comfortable to go to showdown.

as played
-yeah its for sure pretty close call on the flop but with the possible showdown value and range advantage its not that bad when we have good clue and game plan for next two streets. the problem is what is our range? only made hands as played- guardshots and draws are for the large part x/r.... therefore a call can be tricky vs his Top pairs and overpairs...which i wanted to force off with a turn probe and river shove...at least some Jx but probably little optimistic vs no reads like herofolds...

-ott, yeah 7x for sure is the only thing we rep, which makes a lot of sense storry wise bec its hits bb def range and continuing range...
with the check check turn and lead river is same result as probing the turn in my eyes....

-otr i think 88-TT will fold here. only J9+ are calling idk if he called bec of his blocker to the straight. i think 98 is reasonable float for the bb. he tanked quite a bit and the 9 x was probalby the thing. it blocks also 79...

Thank you for reply

I think people over-defend rag aces here preflop. Kinda spot where lose lot money/win small vs tight range.
Would prefer hand like 53s over A2o.

I see kinda inconsistency here on flop with this hand.
We are arguing both theses points in same hand vs same opponent:
1)We think opponent is good reg (from Original post) - Even more reason to not defend a2o preflop
2)We think opponent overcbet on wet low-middle board what hit bb range lot more then opener range to make our float profitable and then this good reg will too often give up turn on most cards. (Inconsistent with thinking that he is good reg) - If he is good reg he will have relative tight cbet range here with lot hands what can barrel again on many run-outs IP what our hand very often can't defend against.

I am not saying we should not defend preflop or float A2o on flop, just I can't say i agree with logic: "i defend A2o preflop because he is good reg(it reason for defending less as he will have better range/board understanding/will put more pressure on later streets ect.) and then because he is good reg with balanced cbet range on this board i am defending any A high hand even very worst ones who have poor Turn and river playability here because i sometimes have best hand on flop with weak A high"
I would agree with something like this ---> "I defend preflop vs this weak postlfop reg who have cbet 80% (overcbet) and turn cbet 25% (give up often), so i will be able c-r bluff him often, c-c flop + bluff river often with my hand, so i defend preflop more hands. Now on the flop he will cbet any K/Q high and often give up T+R and i will see free showdown often with my A high and sometimes win with A high/Improved hand like pair of 2/Pair of A (or if needed will be able bluff river after he give up turn) - so i am calling flop now." - and even then it close with A2 without any backup if we should defend vs cbet here anyway.

Turn/River:
I definitely in lot spots don't have donking ranges and i play all my hands by checking to previous street aggressor, it simplify our strategy execution so much and probably don't loose that much EV.
I would very rarely be in this spot where we call A2o on flop, but as played i think there is better hands to turn into bluff donk to balance our value donk hands, before picking hand like A2o i would pick hands like:
1)Hands with equity (draws)
2)Hands with better blockers
3)Hands with worse showdown value
If we turn hand like A2o into bluff now, what is hand we don't turn into bluff?
I think if we choose this hand as bluff we are over bluffing and will be finding ourselves way too much in river spots where we need exploitably bluff river to fold out Stronger A high/Pairs (Exploitable for big $EV by starting to call Any Ace or pair down) or check and loose vs stronger A high/Weak pair relatively often.
About sizing: I think this is bad stack for bluffing much here also - I would lot more like doing bluff play here if we had stack what can setup river shove after betting bigger turn (2/3). Would you bet 1/4 also value hand like 7x or would you want more protection for your hand? You generally want bet same with your bluffs and value hands but your stack not really allow bigger turn bet + reasonable sized river jam.

Anyway that what i think about hand, might be way off here for sure. Overall i don't think it great spot or hand to play back OOP vs reg preflop or on the flop.

Take Care.
Gl at tables.

How large do you think your range advantage is? Imo, it's not nearly as much as you think. Fold flop, he's cbetting way too large to profitably call this.