Took about a 6month break but been doing well since I started back up last 4-5days. Want an honest line check on this play. I'm still not sure if it was just spew or a decent squeeze.

blinds= 1,2,4(straddle)

whale, calls 4, 2 other players call 4, Hero calls 4 wth kq offsuit( 180 = stacksize), 3-4 other players behind call 4.

Straddler($70) who has shown down river bluffs and action player raises to 10 total.

action goes, call 10, call 10, call 10, hero raises to 60 total.



thoughts?

I like it, we r calling it off obviously?

vs the straddler of course its like 10-12 more. Other players most likely yes.

Hate it. I'd much rather do this with TJ suited than KQo. Reasons:

1.) It's completely reasonable that straddle actually has a hand here.
2.) You're the 4th limper in the pot... how believable is your sudden raise to 60?

If I'm the straddle, I see you as going nuts with AJ or 88+ and am calling with AQ+, 99+. It's also possible that UTG or UTG+1 limps with AJ-AQ and sees the same thing (without knowing anything about them.... obviously knowing the players changes things).

If i'm gonna have to show my hand down, I'd rather be in there with a hand that can flop monsters than one that is dominated by most of their calling ranges. If you're raising just to hope to take it down, then your hand might as well be 72o at this point.

Why did you limp behind? I like raising to begin with. As played I think your raise is too small. And I think the limp reraise in this spot w/ KQo is bad.

1) Straddler has been described as gambly player and showing down bluffs, while of course he can always have a hand I feel that kq is doing very well against his range. Hence its not a pure bluff it's an isolation play to get it in with the shortstack. a 10$ raise with all those callers off of a straddle is more of a pot juicer than some monster. While he may call with aj, aq, he is also calling with all pairs, and sometimes stuff like 10j, qj, k10, etc etc. So I think I fair well vs the range.

2)as for the utg utg+1 limper. Had they monsters in the closet they would not just call the 10 open from a loose aggro player, they would choose that point to "wake up" You might of missed it I described the first caller as a "whale"

3) My thought process was as follows:

While it's true that it's not entirely beleivable I have a monster or anything that the liklihood that anyone else at the table has a hand that they can actually call me with is very slim (other than straddler which I wantto get it in with specially with the dead money from all the other players)

I woulda just limp/raised to the straddler's stack size ($70), otherwise I think I'm cool with the whole plan / thought process. Original limp/callers would have to be super weak passive to have anything worth calling us here with since they've had two chances to attack and haven't. If called, I'm shoving any flop.

ETA: Even getting it all-in vs a stubborn 77 is going to be a winning situation thanks to all the dead money relative to stack size. And if a hand like 77 just calls our raise then we should have massive FE on most flops.

I don't particularly have a problem with your play. But I've got to admit it's a pretty high variance play and really, it looks like something I'd see in a tournament, where fold equity is greater from shoves. If I was sitting at a 1-2 nl game with about $180, I'd probably pick better spots to try to get my chips in pre-flop. Against a few tough opponents, I like this move. But in a game like 1-2 nl where someone usually gives you chips, I'd wait. It's perfectly reasonable that one of the limpers has AQ. I also know that if I was a player acting behind you, I probably call as thin as AxJx. Then you're really playing a marginal hand out of position post-flop.

meh, its fine though a touch on the low side. I'd probably make it $80.

A better play would have been to raise to 30 hoping straddler goes all-in and reopens the action and then when it gets back to you you can shove.

The reason why squeezing is a great weapon to have in your arsenal is that when you do get AA/KK you are likely to get action because everyone is going to remember that you squeezed earlier to $60 with KQ.

A lot of players always whine about how come they never get action when they are monster. Well, when you squeeze occasionally, you will get looked up lighter later in your sessions.

in any event, your squeeze is fine.

This ^^^.

Opening $30 also allows you to get away from the hand if there's a raise and a re-raise behind. Or if UTG/UTG+1/2 are pulling the limp-raise AA line on the whale straddler (obviously not in this specific hand when they flat the $10).

Even though the straddler is an action player, is he really going to shove mediocre hands to a $30 raise? Action players usually attack weakness, so I'm not sure we get the action we want here by raising.

How much action do you want with KQo? You rarlely have him crushed and guys like this will often have something like A5o or some suited garbage that is still close to a flip.

That's what I mean; typically the only action we get from straddler when we raise and he shoves is action we don't want; this also goes for getting action from limpers (who limped with idea of limp/raising straddler). So I'm much cooler with the limp/reraise attempt.

Imo, we aren't trying to get action w KQo, we are trying to ISO dead money and flip as a 45/55.

If we raise to 30 and straddled has 70 behind, he is likely to just go all in, then if he is called we can reshove to steal, ISO dead money, and flip 45/55 getting great odds due to dead money.

I just don't buy that straddler is going to shove crap facing a $30 raise (whereas he will raise crap if we limp to him).

Plus I'm not exactly thrilled if any of the early limpers call a $30 raise and a $70 reraise, there's a decent chance we might be crushed/dominated at this point by hands which probably won't be folding. No?

GcluelessNLnoobG

Fair enough. My line is a bit of a stretch and a touch FPS.

Ha, like my overlimping multiple limpers waiting to check raise isn't a tad FPS either.

I would have isolated to begin with, however AP I would stick about $90 in the pot putting straddler allin and denying most others the ability to call at all. I would be calling any 100bb shove also.

FWIW, all of my big winning sessions where I win 500bb+ are all sessions in which I did one very public FPS play. Then that play gets seared into the minds of the aggro and ego players at the table and later when I'm monster and c/r shove for gross overbets they snap call me w TPGK.

Not that I'm advocating FPS play (which I guess I kinda am )...

Just sayin.

For how much? I have trouble opening in these spots as I find I will get 4-5 callers usually and sometimes 0. But never the 1 or 2 where a c-bet will take it down. I don't think it plays that well bloated multiway vs setminers and suited connector type hands, but thats probably something I should work on.