Playing a $1/$2 home game. Hero UTG. Solid image, known as one of the better players in the game has a stack of $550. There are two villains in the hand. V1 is UTG+1. He is a TAG kid who generally plays pretty straightforward but definitely misses value sometimes. He has $300. V2 is in LJ with $145. Haven't seen much of him, he's a middle-aged white guy and has only been at the table for about half an hour. He lost a couple small pots, but none had reached showdown.

Hero raises UTG to $11 with KQ (standard raise at the table.) UTG, LJ, CO, and BTN call. 5 ways to the flop, $55 in the pot.

Flop: QJ8

Hero bets $40 into $55. V1 calls, V2 calls, CO and BTN fold. $175 in the pot.

Turn: K

Hero bets $70 into $175. As V1 was tanking, a fight broke out across the room which drew attention away from the hand for about 5 minutes. Once that has calmed down, V1 called. V2 shrugged and put in his remaining stack of $94. Hero and V1 call. $457 in the pot.

River:3

Hero checks, V1 sticks in his remaining $155.

Hero?

Fold pf. Jam river.

As played, call river.

You think KQo should just be an open fold UTG?

Yeah, KQo doesn't play well multi-way and/or out of position, so I would think it is a standard fold.

I should have added that why I dislike the river check so much. You should only check/call if you think he is likely to bluff this river. With $457 in the pot and 1 player allin, a bluff makes no sense. If you are beat, you lose the same amount with a check or bet, but your check allows him to check behind with KT, etc.

Jam river.

I might FPS x/jam turn if I had a read that the TAG would bluff after you show weakness.

What do you think about overbet shoving the turn for 1.4x PSB?

Any sets and T9 should be raising the flop on that super wet board so the only hand I see being behind is AT that had a double gutter on the flop. Also, I doubt a TAG UTG+1 is calling a UTG PFR with that so that only leaves V2 that can have that hand.

I definitely don’t like the 40% PSB on this super wet board as we’re giving awesome odds to a ton of draws.

KQo is very bottom of what I will open UTG - will do it in some games, won't in others. If it gets this multiway and I brick flop I just check fold from there.

Flop bet is fine but I would go pretty much pot size - I think you still get the exact same hands to call in a 1/2 game that also calls the 40. As it turns out, this would also set a PSB effective jam on the turn.

As played, I think you have to call, not expecting to win every time.

The reason KQo is so borderline at best is because you have top two and are getting 4 to 1 and its still a tough spot.

You had a decision point on the turn, not the river. You committed yourself when you bet. Once you bet the turn for value I don't really see the plan that allows you to fold a blank river

Jam turn after V2 puts his $24 over your bet. I don't think anything else is close.

But I will agree with most other posters who said to fold pre.

I'm not folding KQ UTG at a 1/2 table unless its a super aggro table. Having said that, I couldnt care less what the standard raise at the table is. I dont know why people say that. Dont do what everyone else does. Do what you want to do to accomplish what you want to accomplish. If you need to raise to $25 to get 1-2 callers, raise to $25 even if the standard open is $11. If a raise to $11 normally gets 1-2 callers, then your $11 is fine but dont pick that amount because thats what you see everyone else doing.

Preflop-Fold
Flop-Would not bet that big that multiway, your equity is ****. If there are aggressive players behind, I would likely check flop and go from there. If everyone is loose passive as ****, id c-bet like $15-20 and go from there.

Turn and riv- I guess you just call because you're priced in, but not super happy about it

Edit: agree with others on the river. may as well donk it in for thin value instead of C/Cing

So villain supposedly tankcalls turn on a superwet board with us seemingly committed and a player behind him, with something that top two beat? Come on.
Snapcall river plz.

Pre is more than fine at a typical passive 1/2 table.

"standard raise at the table" is on the list of stupid poker sayings fish have. You shouldn't base your sizing on what 9 other idiots do.

It can be a pretty big factor.

If the standard raise is 20 and it gets calls, I don't think it's wise to open for 12 with AA because that's what you think the proper raise size is.

On the other hand, if there are players who 3 bet undersized raises, you probably don't want to go much bellow the standard raise if you open with KQ off UTG.

I couldn't jam over V2 because the all in didn't open back up the action. Otherwise I certainly would have.

I should clarify that a bit. I play this game a LOT and have history with all the players, and I take the approach of raising my whole open raising range to $11-12 and sizing up 1 BB per limper. I change this to exploit certain players when necessary, but that is my standard approach.

Generally very few 3 bets at the table. Nobody ever 3 bets as a bluff, it is always TT-AA and AQs+, unless someone is feeling particularly spewey. V1 in the hand is the only other thinking player at the table.

SPOILER:

Since this has been up for a bit, I'll post the results.


I called pretty quickly, didn't see how I could find a fold in this spot. V1 rolled over Td9d for the flopped straight. V2 had QJo. So V1 scooped the whole $750ish pot

As the session went on I realized that V1 was actually much more passive than I had thought, so after seeing him play more hands I think it was a much closer spot OTR since I doubt V1 is going to be value betting worse. But after discussing the hand a lot, I don't think much can be done differently here OOP that doesn't result in the money going AI. Thanks for the insight everyone!

I would put V2 on QJ here (and i see by scrolling down I was right). I think the river is a blank. No, i couldn't have anticipated a straight here either.