So I played this 1/2 hand last night that had me thinking about ranges and how to best play this unique spot with my range. I'm not too concerned about it being zone, just purely about the hand itself.

OTTH

I have TT in utg + 1 in a 6 max game. Utg limps for $2 off of a 40 bb stack. I bump it up to $10 (seems reasonable). The button raises it up to $30. I am playing a $440 stack (220 bbs) and the button has a $550 stack (275 bbs) so we're pretty deep.

Utg now 4 bet jams for his $80. I sigh fold and the btn calls.

All in all I think this line is fine (willing to take some constructive criticism.) I feel that if I flat I can be 5 bet and pushed out of the pot. Whatever odds i'm getting to set mine 3 ways are torched by sometimes (maybe a lot of the time) getting pushed out by a 5 bet, because I'm almost assuredly not calling there. I also feel my range is capped so it makes it easier to push me out and isolate the utg player (whether i am capped or not we can discuss.)

My question is, should I have a calling range here with this $80 jam? If so I should be calling almost every hand that way the btn can't just relentlessly 5 bet me, right? Even then, if I have QQ, or KK for that matter and I flat the 4 bet and then the btn 5 bets, that's still a crappy spot eh? Like is there even a profitable way to proceed at that point? I don't think so.

This now brings up what I think the best strategy is: 5 betting. Tell me if this sounds crazy but shouldn't I be 5 betting here to push out the btns equity and isolate the jam? The biggest hinderance here is I have no reads on anyone because it's zone, but I have to assumptions that maybe yall can ratify (1. Short stack players are not definitively bad, but it can be presumed there may be a slight tilt because of lost money on previous hands forcing a play like this meaning we get a few more % points in having a better range, and 2. Are we that afraid of a player who is limping then jamming over this action?) I think TT can definitely be behind, but I would say my entire range here is most often ahead of these actions. TT is also not what i'm here for, it's how do I play my TT+ and AQ+. I can fold out lots of other hands having only put $10 in.

If we have AK here and the action gets back on us, we can reasonably assume if we 5 bet we're getting hands like TT, JJ, and maybe even QQ to fold, right? We are now uncapped and can definitely have those crushed with likely very few bluffs (we can discuss how deep into my range I wanna be 5 betting but I don't think anything lower than AQ suited is viable. Not sure about what pocket pairs I should be using.) There are 6 total combos left of AA and KK and 18 combos of TT-QQ. If we fold those out and get to heads up that has to be a win for us right? Also we're pushing some overs out if we 5 bet JJ here, but are also potentially owning ourselves against KK and AA. That being said if we go from the bb $80 jam to $130ish that isn't risking much more to fold out a lot of the btn's range. If we get called or 6 bet I think we can dump the hand and live with the losses.

Let me know y'alls thoughts because I think this is a fascinating spot

With stack sizes the way they are and BTN getting great odds if you flat the jam, I think playing your continuing range almost purely as a near-min 5-bet ($130-150) makes a lot of sense. If we flat, we're taking pretty mediocre odds, possibly capping our range, and giving BTN a free pass to realize his equity IP when he wants, or force us out when he's strong or feels we're weak.

5-betting with AK, JJ+ seems about right to me.

Why would you 5 bet bluff with TT? This is a bluff after all. You can't be expecting to get value from 77, 88, 99, etc., here. And you're flipping against overcards. Why not bluff with blockers instead (A5s, etc.)? Or hands that have some equity against overpairs (98s and other sc's)?

You should have bluffs, but they should be the correct number of combos based on bet size and the proper card composition.

Why bluff with blockers when i'm still trying to compete against the all in player? I need hands that can compete with his range. That's why i'm turning value hands into bluffs. Also, theoretically, i'm getting better hands to fold, wouldn't you agree? If I have TT here and can get AK, JJ, and QQ to fold isn't that a win? Tens should be good a decent amount of the time against the 40 bb jam, and I push out hands that can possibly dwarf my equity in the pot. Also TT is probably the bottom of my 5 betting range. I'm thinking AQ+ and JJ+ might be what I should be 5 betting, but TT is close.

The point is, if I flat with even some of my strongest value hands I am now capped and am in a super crappy spot giving the 3 bettor a chance to 5 bet and push me off my hand. Like, what can I possibly call a 5 bet with? AK? Probably not. QQ? Feels pretty bad against a 5 bet. KK? I guess but that still feels pretty ****ty. If the villain here is anywhere close to a thinking player he can realize this and push out a lot of my hands, and then go heads up against the all in player with a disgustingly good price. By 5 betting I now get to push those hands out that I was going to fold to a 5 bet. If he has AA or KK i'm screwed, but i've only lost 65 bb's and not my full 220 bbs. If I flat he can now overbluff and I can't really compete against that. If I have AK and get any pocket pair to fold that's a huge success.

You could argue what I am getting to fold or what I should be 5 betting, and I'm willing to discuss that because it's a tad more grey. I do think this is the play tho. What's difficult in this hand is understanding what the 4 bet jammer's range is from limping utg. Hard to know. It's strong but idk if it's super strong.

I hate having a callrange in that spot. So that option goes out of the window. I would 5bet AK, QQ+ and 3 combos of JJ. Depending on buttons tendenci flatting AA is an option but against most good regs it is way too faceup. The sizing of the 5bet is def a clickback 5min5bet. The reasoning is because you are responding to BTNs 3bet with a sidepot.TT is a clear fold here. If you had any more information about both UTG and BTN you could make a case for folding 100% of JJ combos. And about using blockers to 5bet here against unclosed action vs fairly tight range in an all in spot... its probably one of the worst mistakes you can make playing poker. Super costly to bluff an all in spot with worst hand. Barely reading this suggestion made my skin crawl.