I'll cop right out front, Villain's line in this hand confused me a lot. I've reviewed the hand in my head, and don't believe I'd change my play at all, but I'm still interested in comments on all streets. Mostly though, this hand is relevant to lines I've seen several different players take recently, and I'm trying to decide what if any adjustments are appropriate against these players. So, I'm going to post the hand and if there is some commentary then eventually, I'll put up the results and lead into the "larger issue" I've been pondering.

Live 4/8 - Villain is very laggy and is running very hot. Possibly due to the fact that he has about 6 racks of chips in front of him many at the table seem reluctant to go to showdown with him and he has taken several pots down with river bets getting no calls. I saw him get caught on at least one three barrel bluff when he did get called on the river.

Hero is MP 2 with pocket tens.

Villain is UTG and limps. One additional limp before hero. Hero Raises. Folded to BB who calls, limpers call.

Flop is 289 rainbow. BB Checks, Villain Bets, 1 Call, Hero Raises, BB Folds, Villain Calls, 1 More Call

Flop is a 3 - may have put FD on board. Villain Bets, 1 Call, Hero Raises, 2 Calls

River is Paint, does not complete the flush. Villain Bets, 1 Fold, Hero Calls.

The stop and go had me pretty perplexed. The flop bet could be anything from any 9, air, two pair a set, straight draw, overpair, gutshot or open ended, so I think the flop raise is automatic. He doesn't 3 bet the flop or go for the c/r on the turn, he just leads. Again I feel I'm ahead of a wide part of his range, so I raise again, and he slams on the breaks only to start in again on the river. At this point I'm just confused, so I don't pop it again, just call and look for the answer.

Comments on all streets please, plus I'd be curious to see the hand range the community has for villain. Plus as indicated, there's a deeper issue that I want to raise after some discussion of the hand.

I think this is fine.
Which "paint" the river is matters, but I play it the same.

Villian's line just seems odd.

It could have been a Q completing the J10 SD, but I honestly don't remember. Regardless, I'm still calling the last bet on the river closing the action.

Looks fine to me.

If it was a Q, J10 makes total sense (limp pf, bet flop, donk turn). Otherwise, strange line.

This looks fine. I think it would clearly be a mistake if you played this any differently. Raising preflop and on the flop seem pretty obvious. Even a turn raise clearly looks like the right play IMO.

Folding on the river against this type of opponent would be really bad, and I don't like raising because his line is really strange and I can't figure out whether we're ahead or behind.

This hand is like so standard. nh

OK, I agree - standard hand. Now here's the question I really want to talk about.

Villains Hand - AA. Limped UTG and doesn't RR on the flop or the turn even though he's crushing not only my actual hand but my range as well. I wouldn't think this noteworthy except I seem to see a rash of people limping monstrous hands preflop and playing them with some aggression, but not too much post flop. Another example. The other night player on my immediate right took down two pots limping KK. The second time he did it, the player on his right asked him if he had raised preflop and the non raiser said "no, and I never will." He then went on to explain his theory in depth about how he almost always got to have other players bet the hands/build the pots for him and this way he got to disguise his hand etc etc.

I've seen similar examples limping the big PPs and then just calling if raised recently, it seems to be a growing practice (maybe everyone is following Phil Hellmuth's words of wisdom from the pokercast a couple of weeks ago). Obviously, this is horrendous play for so many reasons, but it does take advantage of aggressive play and leads to a situation where someone playing TAG puts a lot of money in with far the worst of it and really no idea they are doing so. I admit, once the Villain in this showed his rockets I felt pretty dumb for building a big pot for him.

So here's my question - if I identify a player who likes taking this line are there appropriate adjustments to make to them? If a couple of these players limp in front of you, is it right to tighten up your PF raising range since "punish the limpers" may not actually apply to these players? Or am I just making to much of this and is the right answer to losing a big pot to one of these guys to shrug it off and think about the times that their failure to be aggressive with premium starting hands will lead to you making runner runner nut flushes against them?

And FWIW - last night Mr. I never raise pf flopped top set, checked the flop and let someone hang around for a runner runner low straight. Karma works!

overpair vs. overpair is part of poker. Don't hate on the bad players... they're your friends.

Out of interest, if utg had raised pre-flop, how would you have played your Tens?

After limping pre-flop, what would you have done if he had re-raised on flop or turn?

That and this: are incongruent.

If he re-raises flop, I probably still have A9 in his range, if he does it on the turn, then I'm definitely thinking two pair or a set. I'm not really suggesting that had this guy played his aces "right" that it would have necessarily affected the results of this hand. I probably just lose more if he plays this pair more aggressively with the exception being that if preflop goes him raising I three and he caps, I might be able to find a laydown on the flop or turn. Given how crazy he had been playing though, I may well have been showdown bound.

I was actually just trying to use this hand as an example of something I've seen multiple players that I play against regularly do. Maybe the more specific question is this. Let's say I've got four guys at the table who I've seen employ this line of limping with premium hands. I'm OTB and all four of these guys have limped in front of me. I look down and see KJs, now normally that's an easy raise for me OTB with four limpers because I feel I have an equity edge against most limpers ranges. These four guys though have demonstrated that their limping range is everything they will play. Should I adjust me pf play because of that? Or am I just over thinking?

I agree completely - that's why the idea of an overpair never crossed my mind. I'd watched this guy bet with air, raise after the flop with marginal hands or just as a stone bluff, play a wide variety of less then premium hands. To me that makes him LAGGY, maybe I'm not using the term properly.

The only hand I can think of looks like 2 suited cards and he put you on AK and thought he could bluff you off the flop, then hit a flush draw on the turn (omg must bet now), and may or may not have caught the river, since you said he will 3 barrel with nothing often. So you played it fine.

After he shows you AA just thank him for not charging you more.

The bottom line is the villain loses value playing this way and that benefits you. If he is only taking these off-tempo lines when he has big hands then you can exploit this by folding weaker hands. If he is taking these strange lines with a wide variety of hands then continue to value bet like you did in this hand when you have an equity davantage against his range of hands.