1/2 Live at the Venetian

Stack: ~$450. 8 handed. UTG straddles to $10. The main villain in this hand is the gambling type that seems like he's taking a break from pit games to see if he can run something up at PLO. He's been stacking off pretty light and being aggressive. I've been playing tightish, and villain probably thinks I'm nitty.

I'm UTG+2 with AAT5.

Preflop:
UTG+1 calls the $10 straddle. I pot to $60. Villain calls on the BTN. SB, UTG, UTG+1 call.

Given how aggressive the villain on the BTN is, should we have flatted here hoping to 3bet if the BTN raises and get most of our stack in pre with bad aces?

Flop: ($300) QJ7
Checks to me. I pot it. Villain calls. Everyone else folds.

Is it too thin to continue on this flop? We have the A blocker and a gutter, but we are in a 5-way hand. At the same time, we know the villain on the BTN isn't gonna fold if he has any piece of this flop, and we're ahead of that range.

Turn: ($900) 7
I bet my remaining ~$90. Villain calls.


Any feedback is appreciated. I'm hoping to improve my game in multi-way pots because that's one of the biggest differences between live and online.

Pot/call seems fine but not amazing.. would consider alternative sizing/lines preflop to avoid these marginal-at-best shoves on many flop textures

You wouldn't pot pre? We can't assume that we're gonna get 4 calls and take a flop with a weird SPR.

There is nothing wrong with pot, but I don't mind keeping it smaller with mediocre aces, especially if there is a reasonable chance of getting in more than $60 pre, I'm not a big advocate of limping (or limp-raising in this case) but in straddled pots especially I will often bet less than pot, especially without better position, betting smaller also helps me play a wider range of hands effectively, I might go say $40 here with my whole range

Also if we assume utg+1 is calling and btn is the action player that is at least 3 players to a flop

Edit: added a little more content not included in quote by op

Yeah I didn't really think that far ahead when I put in the raise preflop. Thanks for the feedback.

Your hand is good, but not amazing. You will see a lot of difficult flops with this hand. Especially when you have a tight/nitty image your potting is not the best idea. IMO best play is to flat and hope that someone behind you raises. If noone raises it`s not a big deal IMO. It`s much more easier to lay down your AA on a difficult flop after an initial investment of only 10$. The good thing of flatting is that you have three options: Play a hidden AA and get a set over set situation more likely multiway then heads-up, easy laydown on difficult flops and far better SPR if some raises after your pre. To pot it pre in this situation I would prefer a more nutsuited/connected hand...

I should've definitely considered limping in this spot with bad AA with a LAG gambler behind me and in what will likely be a multi-way pot. I think I was in auto-pilot mode at this point in the night (was close to 2am IIRC) and saw AA and potted without much thinking.