OneTime1Time said:

Is this a standard bet sizing for him? He's betting that flop pretty heavy… Given our position it sucks to 3b this hand, but you definitely can go with an 18k 3bet and probably fold to his 4b shove. 

 

As played, I would float the flop and see if he shuts down on the turn. You can also check/call flop and represent spades if they get there. I really don't like check/raising flop, because his lead is so big that all c/r will commit your stack. A check/shove looks like you are jamming a spade draw and he might call off semi light(but still have you beat). If he had led for something more like 4500, you could c/r to 12k and then decide from there. 

 

I struggle with this a lot too, all I can offer is it takes practice trying different lines vs different play types. This is a flop he will always continuation bet though, so you can't always be just check folding here. Also, when we shove pre, it isn't about him calling. It's about him folding and us picking up the 13k in the middle. When we do get called, it's a /prayforflipandrunpure

I'm not sure if its a standard bet size for him, to be honest I never even noticed that he bet so big. I suppose I nearly had my mind made up pre-flop that if I missed I would fold, which is obviously a mistake. I think now that calling is fine pre-fop once I'm not only going to play fit or fold and to defend against some of his standard c-bets. Also I like your comment pointing out that its about him folding pre-flop not neccesarily him calling with worse which I hadn't really thought of.

MP vs BB this is a really standard 3bet/call for 24bb here. I think flatting OOP is just wasting the value of the hand since there's so many times when we either c/c flop and fold turn, or just c/f flop.

When we 3bet pre we're not worried about playing OOP, because good players aren't flatting 3bets 25bb effective very often. As long as we 3bet to a size that doesn't give him great odds to flat – so around 16k or so – we'll be fine. We just 3bet and happily call it off.

This hand gets more confusing by the minute!! Why is it a standard 3b call? When we 3bet call we are a 2/1 dog againist his shoving range (TT+, AQo+). His opening range I don't think is that much wider maybe including 88+ and AJ. So when we 3bet call, we fold out the hands that we beat i.e 88-99 and AJ and call against the part of his range that beats us. Its like we allow him to play perfectly against us. I don't know. I'm wondering(not saying you are but..) if you're basing your answer on your experience of playing higher stakes tournaments, where players would be opening wider and therefore the AQ is goin fair a bit better. I sometimes find myself trying to implement a play that I've seen somebody doing on a higher stakes video and it never works at lower stakes. Its like they always have it because there not thinking on the same level as higher stake players and their opening ranges, 3bet calling ranges and 4bet shoving ranges are all different.