Not many interesting hands or river decisions from this session. In this one I end up with the nuts on the river in a multi-way pot after no aggression on flop and turn.

Setup/Reads: Table is all short stacked (most between $150 - 250) with the exception of villian and hero $325 and covers). Table has been mostly very passive with limpers folding to my agression from the cutoff/button raises with a lot of one to flop that fold the flop. On the last round I had raised from the button and continued on a 7-8-4-3-Q with a delayed c bet on turn and barrel off river and got called down by pocket nines from villain. For this hand I am now directly on his left after moving after the call down.

Earlier in the night villian had called a preflop raise from another player closing the action to$15 that went off 6 ways. On the flop he had a pair/flush draw/ and backdoor straight draw that he folded to a $60 bet/call (call was all in), and was convinced it was the correct laydown (he was in position on button). For what it is worth he would have hit flush on turn and won the pot.

Action on hand (hero on button, villian on CO)

a few limps to CO who limps as well, hero raises to $13 with A5. Action ends up going 6 way for $13 each.

Reason for preflop action: usually I would limp along here, but I had been seeing so many limp folds that I was okay with this going multi-way with more dead money in the pot. My default here is to limp, but this time I decided to raise, mostly based on table image where I was trying to cultivate a crazy image to be payed off later due to betting/raising too much.

Flop ($78): J93 Checks to hero on button and because this hits limpers range and I don't think I can win this pot uncontested I check behind.

Turn ($78): 4 UTG picks up chips to bet (I took this as genuine and not as a please don't bet tell to me) and again the rest of the table checks around. With the image I had going I didn't want to bet here and only get called by a hand that is beating me, so I check behind again and hope to hit and get bet into.

River ($78):2 Checks to CO who bets $20

Three thoughts go quickly through my mind:
1 raise for value somewhere around $80 and hope CO calls
2 flat and hope for overcalls because nitty villain won't call
3 raise very big (maybe even all in) and hope someone has a flush they cannot fold.

Hero raises to $80. Thoughts?

Do your own bidding here. We'll played. A big flush will raise any way and the bettor might raise. I think you did the right thing. To often will the others just fold or flat when we slow play call And and most hands that will call 20 will call 80... Kinda looks like your restealing too so they may call lighter. I think you did fine.. In a mtt you can flat to induce but I think im still raising even in a mtt. I often lose value slow playing. If you hit on turn or flopped it you could induce cause when it back fires you have a street or 2 to make up for the lost value.

If you´re going to raise limpers OTB, do it with any hand except a small pair or Ax suited because a limped multiway pot in position with those hands is a gift from the poker gods. To bloat the pot preflop here is to waste a great spot.

I would bet the turn. It´s rare a jack gets checked twice here. What happened to Mr. Crazy Aggressive? The turn is a beautiful card. You can bet about 30 and just get everyone off their combined equity.

Yeah, this hand was butchered! Pre-flop was bad and I should have bet turn. If I bet turn I think I stack him. He called my raise with Q high flush.

You should bet the turn here. Just bet a little less than half pot. Even if you get called by KJ, you have like 30% equity. Betting $30 should be fine.

River is good. Against a station, I'd raise more and try to extract value from his cooler range (which in a fish's mind is basically any flush). But I'm assuming a nit will fold medium flushes to a huge raise (given your image).

Flatting the river to induce another call is an absolutely ridiculous play. You shouldn't even be considering that play.

Jam this ish and it's not really close.

I am not so sure about the $80, although it does look a bit like a steal sized bet I dont think you get any callers except for flushes. Since you are really flush hunting with no one stabbing at this pot anywhere along the way I would rather give a flush something that they can 3-bet ... more like $45-$50 if you want to go this route. I think the $80 is too large a bet for most any flush to re-re-raise since most competent opponents will know that the only callers would be from hands they lose to with these stack sizes.

I dont really consider flatting here unless you are in an earlier table position where you have others who have no acted yet on the River. No one has shown any interest in this pot, so raising is the way to go from the Button. On a passive table like this you would see more opponents take a stab and be willing to fold out to any aggession behind it they had a 9x type hand ... and they certainly would have stabbed at the pot with Jx hands on the Turn. Most strt draws, if any out there, may have checked this Turn just because they lose outs to backdoor flushes now and have no reason to stab at this River (unless wheel).

An over-pot bet is good as well, but you narrow your range of calling flushes to probably 10-high or better. So now you not only have to find a flush, but it has to be a top 5 flush as well.

So I add a 4th option to your list ... in order.
1) Min or Min+ raise
2) Over-pot bet
3) 4x raise bet (AP)
4) Flat

It's certainly possible that a flush wont 3-bet a min-raise, but I think you get called more often by 9x/Jx hands with option #1 which gives you more chips in the long run and leaves the door open for smaller flushes more easily 3-bet with these stack sizes. GL

I would typically just overlimp here and nutflush / two pair / trips mine. If we're going to raise, then at least raise an amount that has a chance at thinning the field to HU in position where we can buy the dead money on the flop; I don't even open to less than $15, with 4 limpers I'd be needing to make this $25/$30 in order to have a chance at thinning the field. Your table looks the same, and now we've just created a hugely bloated multiway pot where our only chance of winning it is by smashing the flop (which we're unlikely to do). Just overlimp, keep our SPR sky high, and rake in the monies when we occasionally hit.

I also check behind and now regret that I just lit $10 up in smoke preflop.

I also just check behind on the turn. We've picked up a lotta outs, but I still think our FE is close to zero in a 6way pot. Plus stacks are such that if we do get raised, it'll be for stacks, and now we'll be getting money in as a 3:1 dog.

I'd typically overbet shove the river. Looks like we have a bit of an aggro image, our line makes no sense, a flush is never folding, a straight/etc. might not even fold. A shove isn't even that much of an overbet against a lotta stacks since there's already ~$100 in the pot.

If you always shoved the river when you have the nuts, you'd probably be making the most overall +EV play in the long run, imo.

GcluelessNLnoobG

As OP noted, you should be limping here. I think raising this hand in this position is ok some of the time, but with so many limpers I'd just join the crowd. Again, you're trying to overflush someone here and stack them. I don't want to give them a reason to fold T8s because they're probably never folding it if they hit a flush.

Checking the flop is fine. There is zero reason to bet.

I'd probably take a stab at the turn. No one has shown interest in the pot, so I think some of the time you just win it and you have lots of cards that probably give you a winner OTR: A, 2 or . I'm not too concerned with UTG's pump fake.

When he bets the river he always has a flush. 100% of the time. LLSNL Vs don't check a hand down and then decide to bluff the river when a flush comes in. Just ship it and hope he can't fold.

Grunch:

I would go with this option unless I had a very specific reason to do otherwise. The reason comes straight out of NLHT&P: try to imagine what the CO is betting with. It's either a weak hand that's taking a stab at the pot and is unlikely to call any raise, or it's a huge hand (like a smaller flush or a slowplayed set) that might call any raise. There are probably very few hands that are going to call $60 more but aren't going to call a shove. (I would only not shove if I knew for a fact that that last statement wasn't true.)

Raise to an amount that a bad player will never fold a flush to.