game is 1/2 blinds $100 max bet/raise

I've been slowing down a little more often when I flop a huge hand with few other monsters possible, and am facing aggression.
The thinking is, the money looks like it's going in regardless, so I might as well keep his range as wide as possible and let him have some rope.

Hero has stack of $360, villain in CO covers, others have about $250.

1 limper, MP (older gent) raises to $12, lag calls, hero calls, CO (loose, average) calls, limper or BB calls.

5 players, flop: Q-8-6r ($55)
PFR bets $20, lag folds, hero calls, CO raises to $120, PFR folds, hero calls.

head up, turn: 7 ($315)
go for c/r or donk out?

Inclined to bet $90.

Check/raise is too strong and just unnecessary here. You don't need to put in a raise to get stacks in.

If you check turn and it checks through that sucks - harder to get in stacks, and scare cards can come on river.

A bet of $90 can sometimes induce a raise. He'll always at least call (odds are too tempting). Then on the river you're left with like $140 behind with $500 in the pot - easy shove for value, and you'll get snapped light. Maybe even bet $80 on the turn, we're so shallow. But I'm always leading turn very small and am sure it's the best way to consistently get in stacks in this situation.

Oh $100 max bet. FFS. That changes things a bit.

Probably still betting $100 and then $100 on the river. I think that'll be most +EV. It leaves like 20 chips behind if he doesn't raise, but I don't think checking turn will provide more value on average - checking can only be better if we know he max bets the turn like always, almost never folds to a c/r, etc., etc.

this is exactly what I would be inclined to do. A check raise seems very strong and thats if they bet the turn card. last thing you want to see the option get checked around and a river card come that either kills action or kills your hand. I def think leading out and betting smaller on the turn will sometimes educe shoves from a weaker hand or on the river there will be such good odds when you ship the rest of it in that you will get called pretty light sometimes.

It's not absolutely essential to extract every last chip, and betting an amount that leaves *something* behind might be psychologically more effective...so if you think $90/100 is better that's fine.

My question is about the line as a whole. After smooth calling the second time for a max bet, does betting the turn seem suspicious or strong? And is this line better than backraising the flop to $220 (which looks stronger, but gets the money in more quickly)?

This is bad, should only be doing this with stone cold nuts.

Someone then does our work and raises? FPS.

I would reraise flop to 220. Only playing 100 max bet so you aren't going to have much fold equity (which is good) and I don't think he is getting away from a Q

I'd bet $100 on the turn. If he calls, same on river. I think a c/r ott looks too strong, and I'd hate for it to check through.

OK. Here's another one for you, same table:
Hero limps UTG with 22, 1 limp, some guy raises to $15, 4 people call, hero calls, limper folds (?!).

Stacks in the $200-300 range.

6 to the flop: A32 (pot $90)
SB lady leads out for $20, hero calls,...

I would like some thoughtful discussion here: give me credit for having some experience in the game and realize that we are balancing building a big pot with trapping marginal hands that may catch up to a good 2nd best hand on the turn. Plus someone behind us might raise in the presence of this "obvious weakness"

In the original hand, we have a PFR making a weak stab on a pretty dry board. If I raise and he folds his AK, yay I protected against runner runner broadway!, and anyone with a Q thinks hard about continuing.

Five people in the hand with a flush and straight possibility and you call $20 into $90 with bottom set? I think this is terrible. I would definitely raise here.

If you have some "perfect" table read and only play this way at this table, we can't really give advice.

Again we raise. Charge the draws, bet your hand.

To the rest of what you said, there are plenty of draws, TP, gutterball hands that are calling.

At 1/2 say we raise and all fold, are we not happy taking down a $110 pot from $15 investment? Every hand doesn't have to be for stacks.

I wouldn't slow play this or pretty much any set oop. But I think the worst would be with the nuts, if we don't have the nuts and all the money doesn't go in we could still be behind and save some $. With the nuts we obviously want it all to go in.
Whether you 3 bet the flop, or lead the turn is player dependent. But you need to make sure the money gets in the middle and oop the only way to do that is to bet. Calling here looks strong too. Thats what sucks about being oop, your gonna have to show your strength sooner or later.Sucks if he has a hand like 97s, that picked up a pair and now wants to get to showdown or KQ Etc. hands that would call a bet, but take a free card in position. Then it goes turn check check, river you bet 100 he folds. Bet your hand.

I'd also raise the second hand and expect to get called, by A's and flush draws etc.
Isn't max betting pretty common in a $100 max bet game with these stack sizes?

Nothing wrong with taking down a $110 pot, and that's usually what happens when I raise here - but can you do better on average? It's true that if there's a flush draw out there, they call pretty much any bet up to $100 and imo, this hand is a better case for a raise (with the A and FD out there) than the Q-8-6 rainbow board. But hoping that any Ace, or gutterball calls is wishful.

I am suggesting that we break out of the automatic "gotta charge the draws" thinking, and consider what else our opponents may hold. And of course, some situations are clear raises - you're out of position, there's a c-bet and call, go ahead and put the checkraise in.

You should really build more pots then. I'm not "hoping" anything calls, I'm content taking it down and moving on. We have different styles: I instigate big pots for small investments. If Idon't get every single one I'm fine, I'll build another, and so on. I'm also a maniac and difficult to range so I rarely shove, rarely go to showdown, take down plenty of high ROI pots with minimal risk.

And we raised these hands for different reasons. The OP we raise because we bet our hand and FPS the turn because all our work of getting money in the pot was done for us.

Just a question about the dynamcis of this game, I never played in a max bet game:

If people make a +100 raise otf, do they ever fold? No reason to try to get ai otf, board is dry enough. I was just wondering if V will ever fold later in the hand after the strongest-looking flop play (especially MW) possible. Have you seen people do this just to buy 2 cards and see the river for free?

It's possible, especially this deep. A bad turn could change plans. If there's only one bet left after his flop raise then he's probably not folding, especially on the flop if I backraise. (but note there are more than 2 bets left)

The particular read I have on this guy is that he can play TPTK or TP2K more aggressively than the rest of the table. There was a recent hand where he v-bet the river for $100 with AQo on a A-9-8-5-8 runout, but that was headsup against a stationy player and with $200 stacks.