UTG is new to our home game so no real reads on him. Late 20's white guy, pretty quiet. MP is also 20's white guy, a regular, very aggressive player, likes to be the table captain so I was less worried about him in this spot.

1-2 home game, everyone has at least 400 in front of them.

UTG raises to 15, folds to MP who raises to 50. Hero is in the CO with QQ. Hero raises to 125, UTG calls, MP calls.

Flop is AJ8

UTG checks, MP bets 40. Hero?

Should our preflop be a fold? a shove?
Does UTG's check mean weakness or strength?
MP's flop bet is a tiny fraction of the pot - but can we really call on this board with UTG behind us?

Pre: $150-$175 - don't even think about just flatting the 3 bet

Flop: I call. I mean, we can't really fold vs this goofy ass sizing. He bet less than 1/9 pot. We can easily balance here by flatting AA, JJ, AK, and AQ + AJs depending if those are in our 4 bet range here (I would personally be 4 betting these in this spot.) It's going to be no problem getting all of the money in with top pair + on a later street, and the board isn't particularly wet - especially for a 4 bet pot.

I probably don’t cold 4-bet QQ with an unknown UTG raiser still to act. I call and either take a flop 2-3 handed IP or we fold to an UTG 4-bet shove as this is always AA/KK/AK.

AP this spot is annoying. I don’t know how to interpret this minuscule bet. This flop is terrible for our hand in a 4-bet pot. As we are now losing to AK/KK/AA/JJ. I actually discount AA/KK given no preflop shove. In game I almost always call these tiny bets. Obv not raising. UTG can still have a hand like TT. Peel this but not putting another chip in unless we spike a Q.

This might be one of the very few spots where I'd consider cold-calling a 3bet preflop. This is actually an incredibly difficult spot imo.

As played, flop is a clear call giving these odds.

375 in the pot with 275 behind? Flat flop and see what utg does. MP sizing is weak AF, could be JJ or 88 I guess trying to get a spazz, could be KK or TT trying to "see where they're at". I kind of want to click it back to 85 to put pressure on utg and fold to jam obviously if utg folds and MP rips it. If MP calls then hes likely going to check turn and we can just check back to play rivers.

Pre is WP. If villain is 3betting >8% this is a clear value 4bet, and we can fold out UTG a lot to boot. Well, in theory at least. I might size bigger depending on exact stacksizes, but in a vacuum 2.5x is perfectly fine.

Flop: with the risk of being ridiculed, i think this is a fold. Yes, it's a 12% PSB, but this is a REALLY good flop for both MP and UTG's ranges and what do we do vs a bet of any size on a turn that isn't specifically a Q (i guess a T gives us a double gutter..?).

Not too mention QQ might be the hand with the least equity vs villains combined ranges. Even A4s has 3 outs and usually a BDFD vs AQ. Additionally we block semibluffs and worse value like QTs and QJ heavily. We are essentially drawing to a 2 outer, with little SDV and close to no opportunities to bluff.

HU vs MP this is a pretty easy call, but being 3handed, specifically with UTG's range, our overall equity and playability diminishes quickly.