1/2, 200eff., haven't been at table long but got stacked and have a tight/losing image. Table is very loose/sticky but also aggressive.

AJ UTG, I raise to 15.

3 Callers, then BTN 3-bets to 30. Blinds fold.

Hero? The other three callers are almost certainly always calling and not raising, so I could consider a call getting huge odds and good implied odds if I flop big. On the other hand I'll be OOP and have no idea where I'm at. BTN is new to table but seems a bit wild, the callers are too loose and have AK/AQ in their flatting range, but also have a lot of other stuff as well.

Call? Fold? Raise?

Im probably giving them the "You tard stank eye" and calling. Im figuring its unlikely to get raised from one of the callers behind you. Id prefer to call over raising, because I have a hand that can make the nuts in a couple ways, and want to stack multiple people if possible. Im looking to hit hard. So Id elect to call in this situation.

If someone was likely to raise behind me if I just called, I would either 4bet or fold. I think the 4 bet could work as the river raiser can be pretty weak as its a raise and 3 callers so there is a big incentive for him to take the pot down, also such small sizing doesn't scream AA.

But as it seems as players would of raised already if they had premiums, its unlikely that will happen, so take a flop here.

Masta--

Easy call. Fold is weak for the odds. But I would fold or turn it to bluff after normal sqz size.

Preflop: with the game being loose/aggressive, I think the 1st caller may think he has a decent chance of getting raised behind. Maybe he has the Button or Cutoff as one who will pop it pre with decent hands. So, he could be holding AA, but because of the loose dynamic of the table, I'd think he'd raise with 99/KK, no? I don't like my KK hands getting beat by A5o!

Anyway, I'd cap the next 2 callers' pair ranges at 22-TT. Then you have all those SCs & 1 gappers. 2 gappers?

I would guess the Button wants to juice up the pop pre for some reason. I don't see why he'd do it with a pair, but I don't know the guy. The Button could be sittin' on AA, thinking you wouldn't raise to $15 UTG w/o JJ+ & that maybe you'll 3-bet. That's a helluva' risk for him though.

Pre, calling & folding to a substantial raise from one of the other 3 players, caps your range for the Button now, if it doesn't get raised. It puts him in a much better position, knowledge wise, as well as having absolute position.

But what else can you do OOP? Playing this hand will be like landing a Cessna 172 with a 13 knot crosswind.

You can call, or, you can raise pre to $110 & GII to a 4-bet. That's a sick idea. Or, you can call & look for a bingo flop.

If you call the min-raise, nobody raises, and the flop comes K72r; it's checked to the Button, he can scoop the pot with the same hand you have, or worse.

I think the standard play is to call & see a flop, looking for a reaction from my opponents.

J86 flop & I'm betting 125% of the pot & am committed.

I'm not folding here. I can see either calling or shoving. There's 90 already in the pot and only another 185 behind. I actually think I like shoving here.

We could very easily have KK+ on this line. If we're called, we're in horrible shape only against aces. Against KK, QQ, JJ we're about 30%. Against AQ+ we're about 30%.

Yes, it turns our hand into a bluff, but we'll get folds from some hands that should call (AQ, maybe AK, maybe JJ or even QQ).

We're less than 5% to flop a big hand (2P+), only about 11% to flop a flush draw (which isn't even nearly the same as flopping a real hand).

Against an unknown, I'd probably shove with a good image and call with a bad one.

Calling would be my last option. If the button seems to be raising a lot this would be the perfect time to raise. You can rep a strong range being UTG. If you shoved here I think you'd almost never get called because at the very least they'll put you on QQ+ and AK. The button likely has napkins and unless the other 3 callers were hoping for the button to raise here they'll fold.

Calling seems so bad because the only possible way to win the pot is to smash the flop which just won't happen often enough to justify the call. Even when you flop the Flush Draw you'll still be sticking your stack in OOP while you're likely behind. Shove or fold imo.

Although it seems like a small amount to call no one here is considering the most important factors in this hand. This is a really bad spot. You have a dominated hand. It's actually going to be really tough to flop well. The best you can hope for is 2p or a diamond draw but those don't happen often enough to justify this call at only 100bb deep.

The biggest factor, and this is actually why this is a fold is that you have the nut worst position throughout the hand. You have the worst absolute position. You'll be first to act on every street.

Even more important in this instance is that you have the nut worst relative position. Think forward to a 2d flop. Is your plan to check raise? If so, how are you going to get any money in the middle? Everyone will check to the raiser who will put in his bet and ten before anyone has a chance to call you're going to bomb it.

This has trouble hand written all over it. Fold now and be happy that you're saving money where everyone else would lose $15 minimum.

Spike, agreed with all of your points. But shoving also resolves them. Your thoughts on that?

Expensive way to find out where you're at.

Getting snapped off by better and only folding like maybe AQ and a a few PPs. Folding all of the better. You're going to get a lot of folds but you need them ALL to fold a high percentage of the time for a shove to be good.

Even though it's a min raise, any 3 bet by a non crazy player is usually strong enough to call another bet.

Don't even think twice, FOLD preflop because a drawing hand OOP is a difficult job. AJ type hands are problematic and better leave them for birds

15 to win 150 with AJs is sweet

In games like this playing OOP sucks! I wouldn't have raised in the first place.

Position is more important than anyone in this thread has said. When I'm in a game like this, I only call from EP with hands I would raise from LP and I raise in EP with hands I want to 3-bet.

Position is easily one of the most important aspects of poker, you are all underestimating it!

as played call

explain why are we opening to $15

An attempt to get it only 2-3 way, and because I will be called by hands I dominate.

In the actual hand I sort of disgustedly folded for reasons covered by spikeraw -- i.e. I'm OOP and even if I flop a flush draw it could be tough to get a big pot out of it.

But the massive pot I would have won sort of made me question whether I SHOULD (definitely) be calling when the other villains are calling with their entire range, including hands I dominate.

I still feel a bit neither here nor there about it. I like those who suggested raising, but I don't think it's a good play. I'll either take down the pot or get called by a range of TT+, AQ+.

ur UTG raise is absolutely horrible. It bloats a pot for no reason, with a hand that is likely going to be 2nd or 3rd best if a lot of money go in.

Any ways - you have to call a min raise here as you are most likely going to be going 4 way to the flop with a suited ace. Just tread carefully and don't open to $15 UTG next time.

You should aabsolutely open this hand 100% of the time and absolutely at least call pre and possibly 4 bet. Folding is terrible and you shouldnt be folding any hand esp one with blockers straight n flush draws to this action. You are getting 9 to 1 (assuming the 3 flatters always call) so you have direct odds to play 35o.

This is a great spot to have pre flop i have no idea why anyone would consider a fold. I would 4 bet sometimes too but happy to see the flop.

Raise size is fine pre. At 1/2 you can open big because the rake is so high. I used to routinely open to 25. Just bring a few BIs and be aggressive n try to stack

you should open this hand but not to $15. I'd recommend $7 - $10

You have very little wiggle room if you flop top pair to bet/fold.

you should open this hand but not to $15. I'd recommend $7 - $10 especially with a $200 starting stack. Maybe if stacks were super deep $15 wouldn't be that bad. Also hero just got stacked and has a losing image. If hero was on BTN and we had 3 - 4 limpers than raising to $15 - $25 would be totally fine - even with a hand weaker than AdJd.

You have very little wiggle room if you flop top pair to bet/fold and position is more important than hand strength in my experience especially when you are getting the world of callers pre and equities can get so skewed. This hand vs 3 other random hands has less than 40% equity. add 1 pocket pair and 2 random hands in there and it will have around 32% equity. Also live poker players at 1/2 are so bad they are probably over calling with AQ and AK. I've seen this kind of crap all the time. You ideally want to flop a flush draw or 2 pair. Flopping just 1 pair is scary when the pot is already $60 and than you have to bet $30+ to protect your hand. And when you get raised you have a hard time figuring out if he is doing it with a hand that beats you since some of these donks will raise with just top pair weak kicker - and since you are out of position it makes the hand very hard to play.

I think opening this hand for a small raise is not a good strategy. In most LLSNL games, raising to 10ish is going to get almost as many callers as limping.

With a PP, a sweetener raise may be useful, but that's in part because your hand is well hidden and you have a decent shot to flop huge.

Here, your odds to flop a huge hand are much reduced. Even if you count 2P as huge, it's only about 5%. If you flop really big: trips, a straight, or a flush, your hand is not nearly so well disguised as with a set, and flopping that well happens only 2.6% of the time.

If you're going to raise, raise to thin the field significantly. Of course, that puts a lot of money in the pot with no information about anyone else. OOP sucks.

I think there's an excellent argument for letting this go with this stack size. The small stacks make it even harder than normal to drag a truly monstrous pot. If we raise enough to thin the field, we're putting a lot of money in with no information, while also setting up an awkward SPR even if we hit.

A small raise just cuts our already unimpressive implied odds even further and probably still gives us an awkward SPR, except now against multiple callers.

AJs is a nice hand. This is a crappy situation.
Nice hand + crappy situation generally equals fold.

That said, I think a limp might be slightly +EV. IMO we're not playing to hit TPGK; we're playing for that 20:1 shot we hit 2P+.

The worse the table is, and the better our reads on V's, the more I like continuing, likely with a limp but perhaps with a raise if we have reads that will let us make that profitable.

Sizing pre can def be debated. If we had topped up pre i can go with a smaller sizing but no less than 12 or you will get punished by the 1/2 rake. Depends on rake structure. Where i play the max rake is 5 bucks so if you are routinely playing $50 pots its a disaster. You end up pqying max rake on "standard" sizing. I used to just play tighter and raise big as opposed to looser and raise small but it might have the same ev. I think if i opened a lot id go to 9. The middlish sizings kinda suck

This is pretty basic strat pre flop. In a 9 handed game you must open AJs UTG 100% or you will lose money in poker long term. Just a basic fact. You should not fold any hand to the min bump

That last statement is just patently false. For many, folding AJs utg should be mandatory and for all players it's game dependent. There are games where it's a raise, but to say that you're losing long term if you don't raise it 100% is honestly a giant troll. If it's not then you have some massive holes in your game.

Its you that has massive holes in your game. You have to raise this UTG 9 handed because its favored over the combined strength of 8 random hands. Perhaps you should go back to basics and look up preflop GTO ranges which is available in a lot of places but simple to figure out on your own. If you dont open all the raisable hands 100% you will lose money theoretically. Not taking all ÷ev spots is the same as taking -ev

Also when i see someone fold UTG to this action im making a mental note to bluff the hell out of em. You are getting 9 to 1, so you obv dont think pot odds are important, which makes you a terrible player imo

You are wrong and massively underestimating the power, or disadvantage of position. Perhaps a few hours in a 2/5, or 5/10 game could teach you.

I crush both these games bro. Partially due to the fact that i put in the time and effort to figure out what hands you are supposed to always raise pre and i follow the pot odds religiously

I think I touched a sore spot. Perhaps I was too adversarial, didn't mean too, sorry.

You could mostly get by me raising 99 from EP, but there are at least 4 regulars in my 2/5 game that would crush you, once they figured you out (in about 8-10 hours of play).

While pot odds are important, implied odds are important too. We have wining regulars who will bet $2,000 into players just like you, who play "by-the-book".

balanced play