$2/$3

Hand 1: It's a new table (2nd orbit) so no real reads on main villain, the two guys sitting around him have been getting it in pretty light though, so there's a bit of a loose table dynamic.

Eff stacks around 60BB. Two limps and Villain in MP pops it to $20, one caller, and I call in SB with AQo, 2 more callers.

Flop (95$) 5 ways: AK6dd

Hero leads for $50.

My thought is that this a good flop for me and I will GII with anyone but the main villain. If I check here I probably have to call off my whole stack to the villain if he bets or if it checks through the draws and Kx hands get a free card to pull ahead.

Hand 2: Later in the night, main villain in this case is hyper LAG, raising or 3 betting almost every hand preflop and then cbetting almost 100% on the flop when he gets it heads up or 3 ways.

Eff stacks around 100BB. A few limpers and Villain on the button raises to $15 (a small raise for him). I call in the sb with AcQc and we get 3 more callers behind. I suppose I could 3 bet here, but this hand plays really well multiway, so I don't mind everyone else calling behind.

Flop ($70) 5 ways: Q97ssc

Hero leads for $35.

In this hand I just wasn't sure that main villain would cbet his air into 4 other players, as I had not seen him get into a 5 way pot before. Also, his small preflop raise seemed weak to me so that made me think he was less likely to take a stab at the pot. This bet was small enough that the other players will still call with their flush draws, weaker queens, and middle pairs.

I think both of your donks are questionable for different reaons. In both hands checking and trying to get to the turn cheaply is better. Betting just limits your opponents to the hands that beat you and good draws.

Hand 1 is so bloated already that any betting likely commits you to the pot. Better hands are not folding but most worse hands will fold to a donk. You can easily end up committing yourself against a better hand by betting. It is better here though because it's less likely you are beat.

Hand 2 is often a dangerous trap. There is a fair chance you have the best hand now but half the deck is dangerous. There are simply too many draws you can be facing. It's usually actually unlikely you will have the best hand on the river and you need to play this carefully and be ready to fold. Hand 2 has the additional problem that the super lag made an unusually small bet preflop. Without knowing what he does that with this is a dangerous situation. If he does that with big pairs you are donking into a better hand.

Hero is GII here with only 60bb eff, right? Because, I am. So, calling off your stack isn't the problem. Fear of it checking through and Villain hitting his outs seems to be the problem IMO. With 60 bb, no need to worry because it is likely getting in. It really depends on if you believe the player will cbet or not. If you think he will, CRAI. If not, make a small bet that will induce a raise or commit the rest of his stack.

H1:

My default is to fold AQo to a raise, and I only change that if my read is the opponent can open lighter than that often. If so, with just 60bb stacks, I'd probably be 3betting. With no reads, I go with my default and fold.

Looks like we only have about 1.5 PSBs or so. I might just open shove trying to rep the flush draw. ETA: Unlike Quad's reply above, I think there are many worse hands that can call it off here (any A will most likely call putting us on the flush draw, and flush draws could easily call too as the pot is already huge).

GcluelessNLnoobG

H2:

Yeah, two choices preflop. I don't mind the route you took. I'd probably be more for 3betting with AQo since it doesn't play as well multiway as AQs does (although TP in a bloated multiway small SPR pot ain't ideal either).

I'd also probably donk this flop for the same reasons. I'm also donking the smallish 1/2 PSB and evaluating from there.

GcluelessNLnoobG

I'm OK with the donk in hand 1. Worse aces and draws can pretty easily call, and with SPR we're feeling pretty committed here. Would also be OK checking to set up a check raise, but there is only one person between us and the PFR, and would like that better if we had better relative position.

I don't like the donk in hand 2 very much. Pot is a bit smaller, and stack sizes are bigger, so I'm not quite feeling committed. Also, fewer worse hands to call (Vs are less likely to be playing Qx than Ax), easier for one of the Vs to have hit a set, and two pair (especially 97) is very much in play. We have no blockers to most of the hands that beat us (other than AA).