Last night at about 3:30am. 7 handed. Hero has recently moved to a new table due to tables breaking and consolidating. Effective stacks are between $300 and $600 with a handful of players having Hero's $580 covered. This would be an incredibly juicy table if I didn't have work in 4 hours :\ Table is your typical late night loose-passive game where 50% of the hands are straddled, most players are limping/calling straddles hoping to bink. Money is sloshing around the table between some of the weaker players while the tighter guys (myself included) look to pounce at the right opportunity.

Hero is one of the few that is raising, but most hands are getting limp/called for $20-$30 so Hero is routinely creating pots that are $50-$75 on the flop and playing a stronger range than the table in position. The entire table's limp/call range is damn near ATC, but realistically more likely any SC, SG+1, SG+2, Axs, PP's and Broadways. Not much raising aside from Hero. Nobody at the table has 3! aside from Hero who has 3! multiple times in the last hour (including raising straddles big from the SB/BB).

V1 is to Hero's direct left. He is a rec player MAWG and has lost with AA three times within the last hour to the same guy. He raised to $12 each time and got cracked by small suited connectors each time (76s, 32s, 54s). Guy has been pretty unlucky but he also overvalues TP and paid him off each time. Stack of $500.

V2 is two seat's to Hero's left. Probably around 60, but looks like a more serious player than V1. Stack of $1200 so I'm not trying to tangle with him OOP with one pair hands. Plays a tighter range than most of the table but wide by my standards (though probably 'normal' for 3:30am).

V3 is irrelevant to the hand but is the guy that doubled up off V1 three times. Stack of $400. Limp/calls pretty much ATC.

OTTH,

V3 limps in EP
MP limps
Hero looks down at 5 5 on the button and decides to?

Super standard limp imo.
Next?

Edit:

Fine.
We want to limp because when we raise, and whiff, we have given up value as we can almost never win the pot unimproved over 2 - 4 callers.
When we hit a set, the amount of money that we can get into the pot does not go up that much so we are reducing our IO which can't be a good idea.
If we thought that we had some sort of FE pre flop, we could raise with the intention of winning the blinds/limps right now, but we don't.
And the fact that we don't have any FE pre flop is related to the fact that we can still likely get stacks in post flop if we hit a set.
And we have position, so lets use our position, our great IO, and our presumed post flop skill to get as much money in when we are ahead instead of slightly ahead (50/50ish) pre flop where we will still have and SPR of 6 - 15 post flop depending on who calls us putting us in akward spots the 8/9 times that we miss.

Raise to $12 pre if the villains behind you are fit-or-fold. If they're stickier post, I'm fine with limping behind. Same goes for blinds.

If the blinds are willing to put loose action in pre and are sticky post, I like a limp as it's going to be trouble to barrel with 55 because there aren't many flops we'll like 5-way unless we flop a set.

If we can go 3 ways against the limpers, I like a raise as we are all deep enough and can rep a lot of flops.

Table is fairly fit-or-fold but nobody has a problem paying for draws for 1/2 to 2/3 PSB. Sticky with TPWK.

Limp is standard. Stacks are deep enough that the occasional raise isn't too bad, but at a loose/passive table with a low pair I'm almost always limping this.

Only limping if I think I will be 3b.

Standard button raise. Limping is suboptimal with these stacks.

How are you getting $500 into a $10 pot without severely overbetting each street?

I think a raise here is better than you give it credit for. Even bad villains are going to be unlikely to go off for 4 PSBs postflop with a hand that loses to a set, which is likely what you need to do to stack them in a limped pot. So by raising, it's not clear that you shorten your IOs much (because you're increasing the amount you pay now, but also increasing the amount you win by a comparable factor). Plus, some nonzero percent of the time raising will disguise your hand or win you the pot unimproved.

A lot will depend on how tight/loose the blinds play. The worst thing we can do is open the button, get the blinds to call and get the limpers to call. Yes we have the button but I'm not thrilled playing a raised pot 5-ways generally with 55 unless I flop a set.

You're not unless you flop a set.
A set is the most likely hand you'll hit on the flop that you'll also be willing to put more money into the pot. You'll most likely have middle or bottom pair once the flop comes. If you don't have any fold equity once the flop comes, there's no reason to put more money than necessary into the pot.

I like the raise to $12.

We should exploit the tables limp/c tendencies as often as possible i/p. Without fear of a 3b this is a good spot to build a pot to stack someone or c-bet good flops when checked to.

So v1 and v2 are in the blinds and they both cover. We will have position post. We've been playing tight I like a button raise here but my goal is 2 fold. I want to spike the pot enough to be able to get stacks in when we gin flop. And I also want initiative so I have some options to take the pot some of the time without hitting our set. However I want at least one of the blinds to call hopefully v1 as I'd be comfortable getting stacks in in most spots with him based on our read.

V 2 we may play for stacks with v2 but in some spots I would guess it will be much more difficult to double through him.

Recognize that some flops we will likely give up on.

I'd go with our standard open without adding anything for the limpers. So $12 or so.

I'm making a standard raise here, we're too deep to limp.

Grunching ...

Raise to iso, rep a stronger range otf, cbet money card flops HU, with FE.

After weighing the pro's and con's, the fit-or-fold nature of the table, their willingness to limp/call, my image (taken down pots with c-bets and 3! pre/c-bet flop), having the button and confidence I can c-bet bluff good flops and my desire to stack V1 if we both connect, I elect to raise.

Hero raises to $15
V1 calls $15 in the SB
V2 calls $15 in the BB
V3 calls $15 in EP
MP folds

Pot: ~$60

Flop: Q 8 5

V1 checks
V2 checks
V3 checks
Hero?

Betting 45-50 here to setup for a river shove. Think we're getting called by Qx, 67, any 2p (maybe only 85s depending on preflop ranges?) and possibly a gutshot TJ/J9. Flop is somewhat dry but don't really see any reason to check here as we're losing a ton of value

Board is pretty dry, we're only concerned with 88 but we need to build a pot - bet $35-40 in order to get light peels and action from Qx.

Grunch:

Was thinking limp, but might be a spot for a pot sweetener. Nobody here is likely to exploit, stacks are deep, we might get to see the turn for free, we disguise our hand. Would a pot sweetener here be more preferable with like 5 limps infront of us?

Dry flop = $30.00 [Need a few callers to get your $500]

I´d bet $40-$45. If you normally c bet 1/2 pot then $30 has merits, but I really want to start building a pot here.

Just bet your normal bet. Something like $45

You can post the next action pretty quickly, flop is not an interesting spot.

*post flop action grunch*

$35 - $45 seems good if they will call that much with second pair type hands as their caling range should be HUGE in that case.

If they will fold second pair to most bets, then $55 - $65 seems pretty good.
Top pair and a variety of straight draws will call.

PF ..i would be raising to my standard pf raise what ever it was. V1 should have stronger range and don't think he is folding tp hands and he mostly is check folding on the wiffed flop. V2 & V3, if they have a gutter or anything would be calling any decent bet OTF and don't think is going to float oop.

i bet $50 here

Honest but noobish question. How are we finding a bet here when the reason we raised pre-flop was to take advantage of the fit-or-fold nature of our opponents? Wouldn't we expect to just take the pot down at this street if we bet $30+? Aren't we better off letting someone either attempt a steal on the next street or catch top pair before attempting to extract value?

I would check and hope for someone to lead out on the turn or bet around $20.

Because the value we gain by slow playing is less than the value we give up by bet/bet/betting here.

The average villain at this level calls too much and bluffs/value bets too little. We take advantage of that by betting when we are near the top of our range.

To explain it further, we're targeting 76, Qx, 8x, two pair hands, random pocket pairs, random straight draw calls. We're against three villains - there is a decent chance that someone hit something and we need to get some equity from them now.

Then, if someone does have a good enough hand, betting now is the only way we can get three streets of value.

FWIW when we get three villains to the flop, even fit or fold ones, we shouldn't be bluffing very often even on a not very wet board like this, because there's plenty of hands in their ranges that can at least call one bet.