Hey 2+2, long time lurker here. I figured its about time to get some feedback on my play, and I had an interesting hand last night where Im not completely sure whats best on any street.

Game is 1-2 home game, playing 4handed after the other players busted.
Game has a 7-2 rule where you win 10$ from every player if you win with 7-2.

Hero: ~1000, UTG (Straddle). Im up about 800 for the night, winning most hands that get to showdown. Im playing fairly LAG as we're so shorthanded, 3betting light in position and generally utilizing position as much as I can. Considerably tighter range OOP. I think Im considered a thinking LAG who will not pay off easily but able to call off light if Vs line makes little sense.

V1: ~400, OTB. Weak player who is super easy to read. Calling station who doesnt semi bluff draws but bluffs when they miss OTR for easy check-calls. Never seen him raise without the goods post flop. Gives my 3betting way too much respect and makes comments like "you had aces right?" after folding to to my 3b -> cbet.

V2: ~800, SB. Ive played a ton with this guy. He has a strange (bad) style that means you get in situations where you have to call off like 200bb with 1p. He overvalues TPTK and bad combodraws (like 1p + OESD) and shoves in bad spots. At the same time hes a bit of a calling station with mediocre holdings and loves to bluff catch (so no point bluffing him ever, but can easily value bet with third pair if he shows no aggression). Its very high variance to play with him.

Example hand vs V2 from same night: I have KK, he opens to 7, I make it 28, he calls. Flop QT6r, I cbet pot, he shoves for 170bb. I snap call and he shows AQo. He hits a Q on the turn and wins.

V3: ~1200, BB. Recently added on to cover Hero (we allow this). New guy in the home game, who is a reg in various local games up to 5-10. I have not gotten involved much with him in NL (we play RoE), but he seems to be a guy who likes to make moves (not spew moves, but semi bluffing and barreling good boards etc), and putting on pressure. He has made several comments that make it clear hes considering me a good player whos hard to exploit.

OTTH:
Hero straddles to 4, V1 limps OTB, V2 calls in SB, V3 calls in BB. Hero looks at AJ and makes it 25 (feel free to comment on this sizing as well). All villains call.

Flop (100$): A72r

Checks to hero who...?

You hand is strong enough to bet and not strong enough to get creative multiway. Bet $60.

This is a basic ABC situation but hopefully turn is more interesting. The turn here can be all over the place depending on who calls flop and what the turn card is.

Check the flop. I'm probably not raising to $25 pre this deep with a crappy RIO hand that rarely gets more than two streets of value. Value of AJo this deep isn't great.

I agree betting flop but with it being so dry I think you can go smaller than QuadJ suggests. I'd bet a little under half pot, say $40, to keep villain ranges as wide as possible.

I think your raise is pretty big preflop. Obviously you straddled to make the game play bigger and the 2 fishy players have deep stacks you are targeting. However, AJo is a hand that suffers from RIO pretty badly.

I also realise you are short handed so AJo goes up in value but do the two fishy players realise that? If they overrate the strength of your hand based on preflop raise size and flop bet you may miss value from the weaker parts of their ranges and risk isolating yourself vs a ranges that contain mainly stronger hands than yours.

In particular V2's penchant for overvaluing top pair may play havoc with any attempt you make to control the pot and that could cost you this deepstacked.

The COTM thread on price inelasticity may be relevant to this hand so take a look if you haven't already.

I'd be happy with a flop check too. Maybe it is better in fact. It is only the weakest player who has position and no draws so check is pretty safe.

Check also potentially improves your position relative to the last bettor (currently you have worst relative position being the last bettor preflop). If V1 bets flop after you check you have best position relative to the bettor.

My only reservation with checking is we pass up an opportunity to get the pot heads-up vs one of the weaker players. There is some danger of getting in a tricky spot trying to vaue bet one of the fish if the decent reg is still live in the hand. The sooner he goes away the better.

Interesting that some advocate a check here. I went for a fairly large bet to extract from the stations. I know its a dry flop but I think V1 and V2 will call regardless with 1p hands.

Flop (100$): Checks to hero who bets 70. V1 and V2 fold. V3 raises to 160..

Hero?

My question here is what is his range? I dont think he reps much with this line. Not used to spots like this this deep.

You read v3 as competent. He bought extra chips to cover you. He just saw you bet large into two stations so he knows you have at least AX. He says you are good and difficult to play against so he would know you'd think a x/r on a dry board seemed weird. Final piece of the puzzle is you are very very deep.

Putting it all together villain knows your range is mostly AX. He knows you're inclined to continue vs the x/r on such a dry board particularly with 72 out he thinks you can think he is bluffing at 72 knowing he isn't actually flatting 72 OOP pre to go for the bounty in a 4 way pot with two stations in it. He obviously wants to build a huge pot early so he can tie you onto a good top pair and get your stack.

QED villain can beat top pair. I range him on [77 22 A7] maybe he has some AK too but that's a significantly riskier play. 72 would be weird and also risky.

My money is on him having a set and I would fold as fast as possible to make him think his read is off and you didn't even have an Ace.

Villain's range is very polarized, he has a big hand or is bluffing. Either way it is an odd flop to raise. This is super dry board and your betting into 3 opponents on an ace high board has to be heavily tilted towards value. Villain calling flop and then checking turn to let you bet again would be more natural. If he has a big value hand he wants to let you bet your weaker hands and bluffs again before he raises. If he is on a bluff raising now puts him in a bad situation if you call.

My inclination is to fold. Villain has to put a lot of value in your range and he still raised. As it happens, you are at the bottom of your value range and you don't have a hand happy about calling down with. If villain was raising your flop bets a lot you would have to think about how to react but I don't see any signs of it here.