1/3/6 Uncapped. Straddle is not mandatory but on most hands. Mississippi Straddle so you can straddle from anywhere, with Button getting preference.
No Rake. (Time Charge + BBJ)

Hero (BB) $425. Teenager who plays and studies in most of his free time. Aspiring pro, respected by regs.
UTG $300~ MAMG Dwindled down from $700+. Good LAG.
HJ $ $1500+~ Mid 20's Euro guy. Opens often. Good TAG.
SB $500+~ Unknown. Seems solid so far, but calls a lot pre and post.

UTG Straddles $6. HJ Makes it $16, probably missing the UTG straddle. SB cold calls. I call with 77s since we're deep. (Should I be folding or 3-betting instead?) I'm not too concerned with balance in this game.

UTG makes it $46. Has 3-bet before but probably a strong range. I'm not sure why he made it so small and what that means to be honest. HJ calls. Small Blind calls.

There's already over $150 in the pot and we're also all relatively deep. I'm also closing the action and can play my hand well post flop. Hero? I'd like to become more educated about these spots from a theoretical perspective as well.

Edit: I'm aware that 3 of us technically have less than 100 BB's to start the hand due to the straddle and that there are RIO to account for, such as set over set.

Do you think you’re getting the right odds to set mine here against the UTG with 300 eff? Also you’re going to be playing OOP against good players, without even discussing the RIO implications.

I’d fold. But I just got done butchering a hand I posted on another thread so I would defer to the better players ITF.

Your fine on the first call if you thing UTG folds or calls most of the time. With UTG being a LAG folding is fine also. If he is at the really aggressive end and might repop it after the small open just because folding is better.

Once UTG raises and everybody calls then it's a meh situation and both calling and folding are OK. High variance because it's expensive and you will be folding most flops. Calling $30 you want to win something like $450+ and stack sizes just barely let you get there. But with $200 in the pot you shouldn't have much trouble getting your stack in if you do hit. A good LAG isn't going to get silly 4 ways in a huge pot, if he misses he is done. You will still have 2 other opponents that might have hit and even one bet gets you close to a big enough pot.

In your situation I would probably look at this based on how much your bank roll can handle the variance. I expect the call is +EV but it's super high variance for a small +EV.

I'd call. After you check the flop, you will be last to act after the PFR.

I can't say for sure what UTG is doing but at these stakes sometimes people see a spot but don't really have confidence so they take half measures. In this case, he could be reacting to the small open and dead money, but be afraid of losing his stack, so he makes too small a raise. Sometimes when the pots are straddled, players (incl me) get a bit confused about raise sizes as well. It's just a bit disorienting and, again, you don't want to wind up losing your whole stack even if, in theory, it is only Xbbs because of the straddle. Whatever, it is still a full stack at the stakes you normally play.

It's also possible he is just trying to build a huge pot for a no brainer stack off with AA. But that's not so bad either.

So, long story short, you're in an OK spot for set mining, but I think you can win without hitting a set more often than you might think. People are going to play very straightforwardly postflop. You might be able to bluff here and there, especially with straight equity and once in a blue moon you might win with 77 at showdown. For example, you check to UTG. He makes a fishy stab with his AJ that missed and everyone folds to you. You call. He gives up.

My standard observation here: good lags at these stakes are almost non-existent. They might be a pain in the azz to play at times, but I'm very skeptical that a LAG beats up this game, unless it is a home game with no rake or something. If 3/4 players in this hand are actually good, maybe find a better game. Unless it just so happens that every non-fish was in this pot.

I can't hate too much on the initial preflop call and it is still likely what I would do in real time. But here's the deal: we'll be OOP (making postflop harder to play and getting paid off more difficult), and the only other players that will be involved in the pot are all described as good/solid players. Assuming the straddler comes along (a decent assumption for this price closing the action) we'll be getting 3:1, so already a decent part of the way to our setmining spot and we don't have to make up that much postflop to breakeven. We also have a hand that will fall on the good side of coolers more often than not (except perhaps against the raiser) as bigger pairs will often 3bet. But, all that said, it's very unlikely this is a printing money spot that you may think it is.

As played, we're getting 5:1 closing the action. We'll only need about a 1/2 PSB made up postflop to breakeven for our 8:1 setmining odds. 3better still has enough left where our IO go to about 13:1 total, and we have even more against deeper stacks. Course, we're going to flop a set and lose our stack sometimes too (everyone always forgets to factor this in). It's probably a sigh call at this point.

GcluelessNLnoobG

Thanks everyone. I appreciate the advice