Yesterday I played in a small card room in the Bay Area with no max buy in. Some background, about half the table usually has 1k+ behind and they all know each other. Most of them are there to gamble.

1. Folds to H A9 in HJ, open to 25 over $5 UTG2(50s euro gambler) straddle. BTN(middle aged Asian nit, 550eff) and UTG2(has me covered 600eff) call.

Flop(79) J99, UTG2 x H bet 60, BTN call UTG2 call.

Turn(259) 7 x around.

River 6 all check BTN has KJ UTG2 88

Any chance I should be betting the turn? I feel like it may be results oriented, but I would have certainly been tempted to HU with UTG2. Did I chicken out OTT despite BTN calling flop?

2. Was tilting a little by this one. H in UTG with AA, open for 20 over 10 BTN (same euro gambler who frequently squeezes straddles with enough money on the table) straddle, two MP call, CO call BTN call blinds muck.

Flop(104) 246. H bet 65, stationy 40s Indian guy (425 behind) tries to minraise, CO protests since the raise is 20 short, floor rules a minraise ok, CO calls (140 left).
H??

nb: $100 bonus for aces cracked

I ended up thinking I probably had 6 or 7 outs and shoved 320, plus the 100 rebate if I lose. Turn 6, river Q. Was there a better line I could have taken? I had assumed that MP already made it.

Bet turn the A9 hand. Even if beat, you have boat/quad outs and most Vs will let you know if they have a flush at this point.

Raised too small the AA hand for a straddled pot. Make it $35-40. I'm calling the min-raise and folding to a turn jam unimproved.

Hand 1 - pre is good, flop sizing is good, turn check is good, I would bet any non-diamond/non-straightening river if checked to me

Hand 2 - raise to 35 pre, as played I would probably go with the hand on the flop like you did

This is at the Palace, amirite?

I would size down my flop bet in hand #1. It is a very wet board, yes, but it is a multiway pot, and we need to size down in multiway pots when we do bet. I would bet half the pot.

On the turn and river, I am happy to check it down. What hands that we beat are going to call a bet?

I like DumbosTrunk's line for Hand #2.

Uhm....? A9o isn't even close to a RFI from HJ let alone an iso-raise vs EP limper

There was no limper it's a straddle. And honestly it depends on the table, obviously if CO and button are super aggro I'm folding. But if I think the CO and button are nitty and the straddle wants to play pots then I'm definitely opening.

What offsuit aces would you be opening with here?

This seems pretty bad with the Aces cracked promotion. I’m not sure exactly what stacks are but he might even have direct odds for a flush draw.

Ah, my bad. Straddles still confuse me at times lol. So is there the CO/BTN/SB/BB and UTG straddler left to act behind us?

Probably A10/AJ, depending on table. A9 is just too weak imo, that's the bottom of a CO RFI.

The way “straddle anywhere” works in my game there would be 7 players behind us. CO, BU, SB, BB, UTG, UTG+1 and UTG+2. I am not even playing ATo here and the bottom of my range is AJo

Hand 2.... 20 is way too small over a 10 straddle. I would make it 40. This is probably not always true but in splashy games, people tend to call way too light in raised pots over straddles. I wanna go big with sizing with top end of my range. Even 50 wouldn’t be bad but 40 seems like solid sweet spot to get a call to 2.

Yeah, without this type of straddler I wouldn't ever do this. I was tilted and got greedy, hoping for lots of callers and button 3! with atc as he often does.. a really stupid fantasy. Every once in a while it seems I need a reminder that when this doesn't work as planned it can turn into a disaster. He probably would have defended and gone hu with me for 40 or 45 anyway.