Playing $1/2 at Hollywood Casino in WV. Table is pretty soft. Many older players and limpers every hand. Hero is early 20's and villain is mid 30's.

Hero has $250
Villian has $280

Hero in CO
Villian on button.

There were 5 limps to me in the CO and I limp with 54 off. Button raises to $20. Folds around to me. I had been there for under an hour and villain had been there for maybe 15 minutes so not much on him. My initial thought was he is raising to steal the blinds and decide to call. Anyone raise in this spot?

Flop: 10c 6c 4h

I check. Villian bets 30 into ~50. I check raise to 85. To small? He thinks for a minute and calls. Here I am putting him on a flush draw and overs.

Turn: 9d

I jam for $145. He thinks for 45 seconds and makes the call.

River: Jack of hearts.

Villian flips over QJ off and stacks me. Besides folding PRE! what else could I have done differently in this hand? I feel like raising pre would have been a better move than limping. I appreciate your response. This is my first post!

''Besides folding PRE!'' Man you answered your own question. Out of position, bad postflop hand and no info on the player. I mean, I am no expert but post flop there is nothing you really could have done exept maybe making the raise larger but he's going to call 95-100 if he calls 85. Note that and bet value hand agaisnt him next time.

Thanks for the response! After thinking through the hand some more after your comment I realized I forgot to consider leading out on the flop instead of checking. Any thoughts on that?

Also do you ever consider raising hands like 45 off in this situation preflop? Lets say you had a feeling the button was trying to steal the limps and its folded back to you in the CO. You could take down the pot right there but also open yourself up to getting 4 bet which isnt the best spot to be in...

When BTN iso limpers he's usually going to have a drawing hand and rarelly have strong hands ( But not impossible ). With this board texture when he isolate you pre I would not consider leading.

When open-raising or 3betting pre I tend to choose hands that are either for value or that has great equity when called.

Value example: AA-JJ
Great equity when called: JTs, 97s, A5s

What do you think?

Would you consider leading if the board was 10, 6, 4 rainbow instead of the 2 clubs? Looking back I think that the board texture is conducive to leading as he often doesn't hit the flop. Unless he has 2 clubs in his hand or a hand like A10, K10, etc.

"When open-raising or 3betting pre I tend to choose hands that are either for value or that has great equity when called." This makes sense to me and is fundamentally sound. Having a reason behind betting is usually a good idea. lol. For value. And like you said having equity when called with hands 67 suited. I am curious though, in what situations would you deviate from this strategy? I will share some examples of some hands that may fit into this "other" category. Again, thanks for your response!