Situation

9 person 0.5/1 ring game. I am in the BB with JJ and £40 behind. I play very tight and the table knows it.

A short stack goes all in for £9 UTG. He is called by UTG+1 and the small blind who both have stacks marginally bigger than me.

The other players

UTG has recently lost a big hand and has waited a few hands to get his money in. He is not crazy but looks keen to either get his stack back or go home.

UTG+1 is generally tight, but has lost a few hands to me when I've outplayed her post-flop.

SB is loose. For example, he lost calling an all-in to me with K7 vs 88 on a J74 flop.

What I think

I see no reason to think I'm behind now, but likely to be behind (or at best in a tricky situation) post flop. I can see arguments for most causes of action.

(a) Fold
I am a player who likes to lower my variance even if at the cost of EV - hence my image. Consequently, I am tempted by a fold in this spot.

(b) Raise all-in
Not sure whether I would be wanting calls or folds in this case - but either getting my money in with the best hand or leaving myself heads up with the short stack with lots of dead money in the pot seem to be good results.

(c) Call
This makes the hand relatively easy to play and low variance - win a big pot if a Jack comes on the flop of three undercards, check/fold if overcards appear. I think my implied odds are just about sufficient for this to be +EV. I think SB is prepared to call a big bet on almost any flop.

(d) Raise an amount smaller than all-in
I don't like this at all - I think any smaller raise here leaves me pot committed and given the sizes of stacks, I cannot see either villain folding to a min-raise. If I raise - all-in is my only option.

Results later - What would you do?

The pot will be around 25 (after drop) and you'll have 31 behind if you call. One of two things will happen.

About 1/2 of the time, a card higher than a J will be on the flop. If someone bets, you'll probably have to fold. The rest of the time, you'll have to shove your money in on the flop no matter what because you have a SPR of just over 1 and you have an over pair.

The UTG's range is pretty wide at this point. He's ready to go home and probably doesn't want to pay the blinds again. The two callers aren't that strong. If they were, they'd want to raise to keep others out or collect dead money.

The best play by far is to shove. You want to play HU if possible against the UTG. Your money is going in anyway half the time on the flop and you're ahead of the over card hands now.

Calling to set mine is awful in this situation. You'll hit is 12% of the time and you can't win enough money to justify it. You're leaving tons of money on the table from AK, AQ etc. by letting them escape from the flop when they'd be happy to give it to you pf. You also can't escape QQ+ on a low flop. Calling just allows hands that are behind you to get paid if they hit and escape if they miss.

TBH, the first option you mention (I can't even say it in this hand situation) is a monster leak for you. Stop playing live until you plug this leak. Folding to avoid slightly positive EV situations turns winning players into losing players. Get a job, build a bank roll, then go back and play. Play on-line at 2nl if you want to play in the meantime.

Thanks for the reply - I feel a bit better now. I have been trying to loosen up my game a bit and avoid the urge to fold in this sort of spot for precisely the reasons you explained. I wasn't sure if the shove was too loose - particularly given the results.

I actually shoved, both villains called. UTG+1 had aces and hit trips on the flop. SB didn't show but was behind to my Jacks - I won a £1 side pot because it turned out UTG+1 didn't quite have me covered.

I'll put this down to right move, but bad luck on the timing unless there are any further comments...