These complex, multi-way hands are the ones i find most interesting, so I thought i'd post this one that I was involved in last night. Sorry if the post gets long, it is, like I said, 6-way and there's a lot of post-flop action.

The setup: It's about 2:30 am and I had come to the casino late, sat down about an hour before. no big pots to speak of, so I was still hovering around 100BB, up a little. The other game, featuring a loud boisterous crew of several young guys, just broke, and 2 of them filled the empty seats at my table. Both brought about $350 from the other table. This table HAD been pretty standard 1/2 preflop...lots of limping, not a lot of 3-betting, and raises to $12 mean big aces or PPs. This is the type where I can usually get value out of hands like suited connectors, small PPs, etc because the players aren't thinking too hard about what I might have.

1/2 NL, 200 max buy-in.

V1 is SB, a young, drunk, asian guy who has told us loudly that he usually plays at Commerce...and I can see it. He is basically a maniac. He's been at the table for about 3 cycles, and he he's in every hand. Caught a few decent pots and now has about $450 behind.

V2 is BB, a belligerent young native dude who has a major attitude problem. Horrible player who thinks he's better than he is, and berates others when he loses and blames them for his mistakes. you know the type. Was one of the transfers from the broken game, has about $350 behind.

V3 is UTG. He's a losing reg who tries to play tricky and it usually backfires. Can get spewy if the pots get large. He's smart though, and I have a feeling if he tightened up his game and dropped the FPS he could actually turn into a winning player. I have a confirmed tell on this player and I know when he's drawing. Has about $400 behind after winning a nice pot a couple hands before.

Hero is MP. I haven't been very active yet, won a couple modest pots when i first sat down, one with suited connectors and one with a small PP that flopped a set. Have since chipped down a bit and am sitting on about $210.

V4 is directly to my left, one of the new players, has about $350 as well. I have absolutely NO history with this player, never seen him before. He has a beer in his cupholder, so I assume he's been drinking a bit.

V5 is in the cutoff, another losing reg...loves to see flops with ATC, but will fold draws/air to significant post-flop action. he's been up and down all night, and has about $250 at this point.

whew...ok, here we go.

V3 straddles to $4.

preflop ($7) Hero has 78
UTG+1 folds, Hero calls, V4 calls, fold, fold, V5 calls, fold, V1 calls, V2 calls, V3 checks his straddle option.

Flop ($20) A65
Here's where things get a bit crazy. well..more than a bit...
V1 checks, V2 bets $10, V3 calls $10 (in a way that tells me he's drawing), Hero looks left and calls $10, V4 has chips in hand and insta-calls $10, V5 calls $10......V1 raises to $60. V2 tanks a bit then folds. V3 calls $60. Hero looks left and sees V4 looking excited with hands on his chips. He's calling for sure. V5 doesn't look all that happy...probably gonna fold. Hero ???

Besides folding preflop, would anyone consider raising this pre-flop? I think the folks at my table (besides the new guys) consider me to be a looser player than I really am (based on the two hands i'd gone to showdown with), so I wasn't sure what raising would accomplish other than bloating a pot that I really wanted to be able to get away from if I whiffed, especially in MP

Anyway, is this an auto-fold after the c/r on the flop? call? shove? I am furiously calculating odds at this point, including implied odds, since they all have me covered. I know V3 is on a draw, probably a flush. V1 probably has some kind of made hand that he perceives to be in danger, and V4 could be anywhere here.

You only have 6 clean outs so I would just fold. Shoving here seems suicidal. I wouldn't raise preflop either.

Wow I probably would really want to make this call but it just isnt worth it. If you were deeper then absolutely and if it was a rainbow flop then probably, but you are going to have to hit a non-spade straight card on the turn, as it is very unlikely that you are going to be able to see the river for less than your entire stack. Cut your losses at $14. Also, even if you are to hit one of these 6 miracle cards, the pot will already be big enough for the spade draws to get the right odds to see the river, and if a spade comes there, you are sunk as well. Therefore, you are putting in 35% of your stack to dodge a spade in the entire hand as well as somehow spike a 4 or 9. IMO its a fold.