2/5, 8 handed, $500 effective with main villain. Hero sat down a few hands ago, but the main villain has shown down a wide range of hands so far. Hero is imageless.

OTTH

Unknown straddles BTN $10, villain calls SB, unknown calls BB, unknown calls LJ, hero raises K J $80 CO and only SB calls.

Flop ($190): 9 6 5. Villain leads $100 and hero folds. Thoughts?

My thoughts are pre the most common outcome is we take down $40 pre and the second most outcome is we go heads up in position with a good hand. I usually go 5x + x per limper when I'm oop on straddle and 4x + x per limper when I'm IP on straddle. Maybe I could've gotten away with $70 pre here for the same result since there were so many limpers. $60 in this spot will regularly act as a pot juicer though.

As far as the flop goes, it sucks. We're not quite getting the right odds to draw to a pair, and we don't know for sure if a pair is good if we hit. We have a BDFD, but I feel like that's not quite enough to justify a call, though I do think it's a pretty borderline situation. What do you think?

Agreed. I don't have too much experience with button straddles (Only UTG, and then UTG+1 for a double) but I think when sb calls, they can still have the world, and his call/call/donk on a board that smacks his range in the face means I can fold here pretty happily.

Thank the villain from keeping you from considering a cbet. Made your tree significantly easier.

I'd argue we should go bigger preflop because in addition to the limpers we are OOP vs BTN straddle. But irl there is definitely a cutoff point where it gets too expensive for even the stationiest of players. But anywhere between 60 and 90 seems reasonable.

Flop: if we were ~200$ deeper, i'd absolutely float here and see what happens on the turn, any card T or higher gives us at least a gutter, plus we have the BD . At this SPR however, folding seems fine.

I always raise 4x+10$ for every limper so I would raise to 70$ but 80$ is obviously totally fine.

I think we have no other option but to fold. Ya we have 2 overs and a bdfd but we are not deep enough to float. If we call flop we are basically hoping to hit a K or J or that villain gives up which I think is unlikely after already telling us he has something when he donks flop. SPR will be less than 1 so we will likely face a jam ott. Even if we hit TP we could already be dead.

I think putting in so much of your effective stack pre vs mouth breathers leaves very little room for postflop playability.

I absolutely hate limping here. Most of the time we just take the dead money down pre, the second most common thing is we go HU and you'd be surprised how often the population just x-f flops here.

I'd prefer to raise smaller. The button straddle really screwing things up though. That's why I protested to have it removed from the games I play.

I've protested before and I plan on protesting it again tomorrow.

The problem with raising smaller is we're asking to go 4+ ways when we do that

I play a lot of pots that go 4+ ways to the flop. From a value perspective and a playability standpoing KJ sooted is just fine multiway vs a bunch of mouth breathers, particularly when we have position on most of them.

It's not the worst thing in the world, but I do prefer going HU so I have the option of just taking the pot down with a small c bet

+1 Especially if we only have $500 with little room to maneuver post flop when raising big.

It's not like it appears that the BU straddle is making the fish play tight. You got two limps from the blinds in this hand. I'd be fine with it. Preflop does seem a bit big. You don't really want them to limp/fold K9o and such if possible.

Floating sucks if he has a high barrel frequency. I feel like he'll check on a lot of cards that improve you, and you'd likely win with a jam, but if he doesn't you can't really continue vs. a jam on any card except a J or K.

I'd probably just rip it in. His nutted hands would have x/r a lot. Gotta have some bluffs and this seems like one of the better ones with two overs and backdoor equity. It's close to the top of your folding range otherwise. A wide range player will have lots of hands in a tough spot vs. a jam here.