Villian - MAWG wearing local sports team attire. Hit a high hand promotion for $300 about an hour ago, bought the table drinks, including me. Has been drinking but not playing terribly. Has commented on my play a few times, clearly respects my game, and I've been very friendly with the table this session.

Hero - Mid twenties looking guy. Regular.

Relevant HHs:

V makes it $11, I flat with TT IP. Flop KK3dd. V checks, I bet $25, he calls. Turn blank, checks through. River blank, V bets $35, I call, he shows AA.

V makes it $16 after a limper, I flat with TT IP. Flop is KT3ddd. He leads for $20, I call. Turn Qo, he bets $35, I call. River Jo, he leads $70, I tank fold, telling him I had a set when he asked while I was tanking.

Most important: V (covers) opens to $11, a shorty makes it $40, I flat KK on the button with about $550. V announces raise and makes it $157. The shorty puts the rest of his stack in (like another $40), I tank for maybe like 30 seconds and call. Flop T55r (~$390). V checks after about 5 seconds. I check back. Turn 7. V bets $155. I call after about 10 seconds. River 3o. V says all-in quickly, I snap call my remaining $180. V tables A6s high MHIG

So literally 2 hands later.. V has about $350-$400 in front. I cover with about $1100.

1-3, UTG staddles.

I raise $25 with 88 from UTG+3, MP (loose passive type) calls. Villian who was either SB or BB makes it $75. Hero?

My standard line here is to fold, but this is clearly not a standard spot. And stacks are awkward too. Can't set mine profitably, can't really jam and get called by worse. And I guess we have to worry about the flat call behind us somewhat as people call straddle raises tighter.

What are people doing in this spot?

Meh spot, but I probably fold. Even against a wider 3-bet range, we're not doing so great with 88 because a lot of his range has two overs while some of it has us dominated. If we call, I expect the loose-passive to call too. So we'd be 3-way without absolute or relative position. If we miss our 8 and V bets, we have a hard time calling even if he's full of it because there will be a player to act after us. Would be more inclined to call and play poker IP if I thought it would go head's up. Can't profitably set-mine here given stack size.

Could shove here, but agreed with you that's probably only getting called by better. Given stack sizes hard to raise without jamming as well.

So, since I don't like calling and I don't like raising I fold here.

I would also add that with a potentially spewy V that likes to 3-bet, I'd just open-limp 88 here a lot of the time. With stack sizes, I'm happy to call a raise pre-flop, but don't really want to call a 3-bet. V's raise sizing is such that he'd give you the IOs to set mine most of the time if he's raising to $15 or so after a couple of limpers.

Fold. As you said, not deep enough to set mine and there is a player behind you. You have no blockers to bluff 4!. Unless I had some amazing reliable tell, like the speed of his bet, just fold and find a better spot.

I would have simply limped preflop in EP.

And I would now fold. Villain seems to have played most have his hands fairly reasonable with the exception of the previous one, is he really now going to go on full blown monkey tilt? To be honest, I've seen very few cases of this and think it is sorta an overrated concept. We're most likely either flipping or way behind, and to me it seems unlikely that we're way ahead (he's really doing this with 77?). Stacks look to shallow to setmine, so I'd fold.

GcluelessNLnoobG

Agree w/ limp pre and fold now for reasons stated.

I've seen a lot of full blown monkey tilt and I can tell you it almost never happens with hands like 34s, more like JQs. He is not going to be inclined to fold I think since he is gambling, so GII here is flipping for stacks 80% of the time and domination nation 20%. Folding here personally unless I feel like I can beat him post flop, which is not crazy given how he played some of these hands.

I take your point that V might well be steaming - but 88 just doesn't feel like the kind of hand to go to war with. Fold.

On the previous hand (KK>A6ss) - I love your flat (to induce?) on the shorty raise - but after you get V to raise and shorty to call... why not bring the hammer down now? I get that you don't want to lose your customer - but you are really vulnerable to any Ax hand (32% equity)... did you have it in mind that you might get away from a Axx board?

SPR is going to be very uncomfortable on the flop and MP is still to act behind us. I'd rather let this go and choose a better spot to take tilt money.

I thought V's range was weighted more toward JJ+ hands than Ax hands (I was wrong obv). If he had AA, I was going broke anyway. If he had JJ/QQ, he is folding to a 5-bet a decent % of the time. So I thought just jumping on the calling down train was most profitable. And there is always the spaz factor (which although is probably a very small % of the time, it happens, e.g this hand).