I don't play poker very often anymore and was on vacation in Florida last week so I decided to head over to the casino for the night. I was playing 1/2 for a few hours and ran my $200 up to $700 and decided to cash out and put my original $200 into my pocket and take the other $500 to the 2/5 game. (Go low-med, or go home, right?)
I arrived at the table just on the BB and there are 7 other players- 2 with $300-500, and the rest are 200BB+ deep. The button straddles to 10 and the following action happens:
B straddles to 10
SB fold
BB (hero) KKds Raise to 35
UTG fold
UTG+1 Villain ($3500 stack) Call
MP ($1500 stack) Call
CO Call
B Call
"Welcome to the table"

Flop Q99ssd
BB (Hero) $100
UTG+1 Call
MP Raise $300
CO Fold
B Fold
BB (Hero) ??


The very next hand:

Folds around to the CO
CO ($300 Stack) Raise to $30
B Fold
SB (hero) AKss Raise to $105
BB (villain) Call
CO Call

Flop K 10 3 ccd
SB (hero) Check
BB (Same villain as last hand, covers) All-in
CO Call
SB (hero) ??


Aside from final action, thoughts on earlier bet sizes, etc?

Please don't post results, OP. They bias responses. I edited them out.

Hand one, bigger pre, or look for a limp/re-raise. Since you don't know the table dynamics yet, I'd go with the bigger pre. You are in bad position and button straddles love to defend wide. Since you are new to the table, a big raise doesn't give much info on the strength of your hand. I'd make it a bare minimum of $40, and maybe $50 as a first hand.

AP, pot is $175 and very wet, bet bigger, like full-pot bigger. AP, shove and pray. Sure, MP has some 9s in his range, but he also has overplayed QX and lots of combo-draws. Plus UTG has already flatted, indicating a probable draw. Don't let him get a nice price for it.

Hand 2 is fine pre. Flop is a bet. Board is very wet and you have a low SPR. Don't get fancy. AP, obvious call is obvious.

1. Raise more pre. Bet flop more. As played all in.
2. Bet flop. As played all in.

Hand 1: as mentioned, bigger pre. I actually dont mind the sizing on the flop, but bigger can't be terrible.

I actually think otf this is a b/f spot. We raised in early position pre and bet into 4 opponents on the flop. We have an obvious strong range and somehow still got raised. Also, we block the K and UTG+1 likely blocks either a Q or some spade/JT combo's himself. Havent done the math on this, but i'm guessing it's a close spot at best.

H2: Again, bigger pre when oop.
On the flop i mostly just shove myself. Seeing this get checked through would be problematic.

My standart open from the big when sb folds in a button straddle is 35$. 40 is cool but imo going much bigger is a mistake