Situation: Generally the players on my left are looser and spashier and pretty bad, and the players on right are looser and aggressive and quite a bit better (not necessarily amazing). More than half of the table is straddling the button, and 60% - 75% of the pots are being raised pre, to very disparate sizing levels. In unstraddled pots, common to see 3-4 limps and then a raise to anywhwere between $5 - $30. In straddled pots, common to see a couple limps and a raise to $12 - $40.

Villain ($525): 30ish WG, definitely a reg, he just sat down coming from a broken table. I think I've played with him before and my read is that he plays reasonably well post flop but is a little too loose pre and gets himself into marginal situations. More aggressive than your average $1/2 player but nowhere near SLAG/maniac status.

Hero ($450): 30ish WG. Since V sat down 20 minutes ago I don't think I've played a hand but if he remembers playing with me before probably thinks I'm somewhat TAG.

OTTH... Button straddles $5. Hero limps AK in SB, 3 other limpers, Villain makes it $35 from the HJ, folds to Hero in SB who makes it $115. Only V calls.

Flop ($250): QJ7 Hero??

Pre-flop my thinking was if I lead out and raise I likely get quite a few callers and am playing an awkard SPR out of position post-flop. I thought it would be better to limp/raise and either take down a lot of dead money or get it heads up. I find the SB incredibly hard to play with a button straddle.

Filthy spot with that flop. Smashes V's range so you probably can't bet him off the hand. Only hands he might fold that maybe called are 88-TT.

Check/folding seems gross too. I guess I end up betting 100/folding and hope he just calls and we bink T OTT.

Bet/fold with your stack size seems wrong. I just bet/call or check/shove. If you get some vibe that you are crushed, just check/fold, but that's pretty gross.

I would have gone at least $125 pre.

Sometimes u just have to give up. C/F to reasonable sizing. Flop hits his calling range harder than yours. Betting puts us on the commitment borderline.

Grunch from title alone: Sounds like a great spot to limp/re-raise.

Post grunch edit: Which I see you did. Pity about the flop. I hate it, but I check and hope for a miracle check back followed by an even more miraculous T OTT.

Anything other than shove or maybe check-shove vs some villains seems bad. You're not in terrible shape at all, everyone seems awful gloomy considering we have a nut gutshot, nut BDFD and two overcards. The gutshot and BDFD are key because they provide equity against everything, even top two and sets. Against a calling range of:

{ JJ,77,KTs+,QTs+,JTs,T9s,KTo+,QTo+,JTo }

You have like 38% equity, which makes shoving +EV compared to check-folding even if he always has one of the above hands.

This is burning money, a threebet pot doesn't generally allow for this sort of manouevring.

I forgot to throw AQ and AJ in there, which make it 35% equity and a slight loser vs checkfolding, but that's fine. The point is that the downside of getting it in can't be very large and we need to maximise our chance to take the pot down as that will be a big win.

IMO, ChrisV has V's range a lil' too wide to be calling $115 3! [$80 more] with KTo/QTo, as it just seems more than a little too loose preflop. However, I am not a Crusher at 1/2NL, as I am not winning 10BBs+ per hour over the last 1500 hrs of play.

You can mess around with the range, but making it tighter is liable to make jamming better. For instance, let's say his calling range preflop is { JJ-66,AQs,KQs,AQo }. We're certainly in trouble when called here - we're about 25.9% against { JJ,77,AQs,KQs,AQo }. However, if you count combos, you'll discover there are 16 combos of those hands and 24 combos of { 66, 88, 99, TT }. So 60% of the time we presumably take down $250 and the other 40% we get allin with 25.9% equity for -$97. Jam still very clear. The tighter you make the range the more of it is mid pairs.

btw you can bet/call some smaller amount if you think it looks stronger obviously. I find at LLSNL, bet sizes tend to get interpreted straightforwardly.

The V will likely play ABC post, so we can expect him to check back most of his range, i.e. mid-pps, and bet the top of his range, i.e. sets, TPTK. He may even check back a hand like KQs. This is why I prefer to check and see if we can catch a free card that will increase our equity.

If the effective stack was deeper, I'd be more inclined to c-bet, maxing fold equity.

Thanks for the feedback. Yes I thought he would have a range of 88-JJ, AK/AQ and would play straightforwardly. I check, he checks. Turn is 5d giving me flush draw... Hero?

Now it makes sense. I just got back from Atlantic City where I spent 4 days with friends. The Borgata has a $4 max rake & they only takes $1 for the BBJ & no flop/no drop! PLUS: Jack Daniels & coke & Heineken [or any other drink] is free.

I think I'd now bet like 150, on the theory that shoving would be inconsistent with a flop check and would look drawish.

With $335 left, I'd go $125.

Bet. $125 to $150 is fine. Don't fold.

If you're going to l/rr then go a little large pre, $125-135. As played I probably just open shove the flop. He's going to fold underpairs, possibly fold Jx and AK. If he has AQ/KK+ it sucks, but I think pot is big enough to jam it in with. What are you doing with AA/KK here? I'd also just open pre, you're a little too deep to be happy with a l/rr with AK here since getting it in this deep isn't a great situation and when you wind up in a spot like this where V is the only raiser with no dead money in between it's close between a call and 3b.

Inb4 hero jams turn and V snaps with QQ (which is still fine IMO)

Yeah, larger 3b pre. I like 4x, so I'd be 140 but I think anything 125+ is prolly fine.

I'm open jamming the flop. Let V figure out what to do; I want to sit back and enjoy the free drinks. Also, something like 40% against many hands and that whole fold equity thing.

Also, free drinks.