1/2, $300 effective, 9 handed. Villain is a bad LAG. He chases draws very liberally, and overbluffs when given the opportunity. The two instances we've seen villain bluff when given the opportunity in this session were:

1.) TAG opens $12 UTG +1, only villain calls BB. Flop ($25): KJ5r. X-X.
Turn ($25): 7x. Villain leads $25, TAG calls.
River ($75): 9. Villain bets $55, TAG calls. Villain shows 98o, TAG shows AJ.

2.) A more tight passive player currently on tilt opens HJ $10, only villain calls BB. Flop ($21): T74r. X-x.
Turn ($21): K. Villain leads $20 and tight passive calls.
River ($61): J. Villain bets $45, tight passive calls. Villain shows J5s, tight passive shows K7s.


OTTH


Villain straddles BTN $7 and it's folded to TAG hero UTG +2 who raises $30 with 8 8 (should we be going bigger considering the villain who straddled?) and only villain calls.

Flop ($63): Q 6 3. Hero bets $45 and villain calls.

Turn ($153): J. Hero checks. This is not a card we should be barreling vs this villain, correct? What if, the card was under 8 and also not a spade, do we continue barreling? Villain bets $100. Hero?

Did you consider just limping the straddle? You can let him raise or just play while getting 40-1 IO on your 88. Bloating the pot oop with 88 at this stack depth against this guy is at least debatable.

AP: I like your line and you played it just like Sklansky suggests in the new book. I’d barrel out undercard turns as you suggest. After he leads out for 100 I think you have to fold unfortunately.

I don't have an open limping range, and would probably raise even if there was/were a limper(s), because I feel like 88 is too strong to limp, but is in the bottom of our pre flop raising range.

Turn should be a fold. When you raise pre and lead this flop and he calls, a lot of the air he barrels with is now gone.

As for pre-flop, normally I'm good with not having an open-limp range. Button straddles sort of change that though. When stacks are short and the straddle will call wide and be in-position post-flop, the value of the preflop raise goes down a bit. I'd say 88 is still a fine raising hand. You don't need to raise as big. I'd probably go $20 - $25. We want him calling wide, and it's going to chase out all the garbage.

Flop bet is fine. Not a great flop for you, but he still has a lot of hands that need to be folded. I'm fine shutting down when called. The J shouldn't hit much (is he really floating JT here?) Even on a low brick, just check it over. Again, his range has been narrowed more than in the example hands by your big raise and lead.

Lol I like Vs lines in HHs. Hand selection pre is obviously bad but post lines are on point, just bad riv sizing. Wins H1 w a real bet and reps QT well, H2 is closer but he should just pile and force passive to fold a bunch - gets called here always bc passive has K7 somehow, but whatever.

Your hand, pre is too big. Check flop dude. AP fold. Bad. You ain’t seeing a showdown without stacking off now.

I really felt like this was a fold given that his range is much narrower than examples given a flop call, have to play oop, and likely have to stack off.

With that being said, I can't get a consensus here or anywhere else as to whether or not to bet the flop, with about 50% saying yes and 50% saying no. Spots like this on the flop are pretty common in my games. I'm mainly hearing:
1.) These players are so wide that we need to c bet more frequently, and we're likely good on the flop and need to deny equity
OR
2.) We have a marginal made hand. We need to check and be willing to call these opponents down on most run outs.


Also, almost every single person had told me too big pre flop. In general I open 6x + BB/limper, and 4x + BB/limper with a straddle on. If we open smaller we are getting called super wide and have to play OOP, with an over coming almost every time on the flop.

you should mainly be checking turn, even if <8. exceptions are A/K, esp K, which favors your range the most
there's not much else you can do than x/f, even if he literally always bets

Are we supposed to bet this flop though?

Prefer checking and aim for cheap showdown/fold. If betting, just choose a smaller sizing. I don't know for sure and don't want to get into the complicated stuff, but this looks like one of those spots where when you bet, you are ahead of his calling range but actually make more money when he folds when considering the whole hand.

This gives me the idea that it might be best to just fold pre then because of the fact that a strong majority of flops will contain at least one over, and it's pretty rare to get to the river without two or more overs, unless we're willing to x-c down most run outs vs these villains.

I think the cbet is a close call. The hand histories aren’t too helpful because V was OOP in those hands. Still, they suggest that when he sees an IP raiser check behind the flop, he’s gonna try and push them around.

I see merits to both approaches on the flop and I think a GTO strat would have a mix, but obv we’re not trying to play GTO against this V.

Taking it down right now with this hand would be great, and we can assume that V will likely ascribe strength to a cbet (given that he ascribes weakness to the lack of a cbet in the HH). This flop is sort of lightly damp in the wetness category, it’s unlikely he connected. We also want to protect our hand against what are a ton of bad turns. At the same time, if we know this V will float pretty wide, a lot of these benefits go out the window.

As for checking, if we think he’s going to ascribe weakness to the check and bet his whole range, we’re going to do really well with a check/call. But we’re going to be in a tough spot against a double barrel on so many turns and going to need to be able to make some borderline calls.

All things considered I like the flop bet, and AP it’s tough to do anything other than c/f the turn. Given the profile I’m looking for hands to double barrel bluff but I don’t think this is a good one.

Nah. Flopping and turning sets worth too much. So is winning pre. Off or ck calling. Straights. At least in a softer game I’d never fold pre.