Two Pair Versus a Turn Raise-Shove: What Do You Do Here?
DECISION POINT: In a live $1/$2 no-limit hold'em cash game, you raise from early position with A?K? and the hijack, small blind, and big blind all call. You bet the K?J?3? flop and only the hijack calls. You go heads-up to the 3? turn, you bet again, and this time the hijack raise-shoves all in. Action is on you...
PRO ANSWER: The stack-to-pot ratio (SPR) is a key factor in this hand. Since there is only a little more than 3x the pot left in the average effective stack on the flop, our hand can be considered reasonably strong, in spite of having multiple opponents.
As played, we should call off the remaining chips on the turn unless we have some other compelling information about our opponent. Our hand is pretty high up in our range, so folding as a default in a spot like this will be very exploitable.
Typically we should bet around $100 or more up to a shove on the turn, although the smaller bet size can have its place, especially against opponents that might bluff-raise on the smaller sizing. We should not generally bet small then fold to a shove, as we may have induced that action from worse hands.
Calling the all-in is the best play.
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