Two scenarios, fairly similar, but maybe slightly different (both 2-3 live); just wanted to find out if this is a leak in my game

i) table has been somewhat active, but dried out recently. We open QJ hh from EP for 12 (190 starting) get two flats from MP players, then a fish rips his last 21 from BTN, blinds fold.
Is ISOING here to spewy? I mean I expect MP’s to hardly trap here and for that reason expect to only get called by {TT+, AK} which means we get 2 folds 90-95% (as I do not expect to see QQ+ that often) of the time and have probably 35-40% equity HU vs BTN.

P.S. In this 2-3 game MP usually folds AJ, and even AQ/99 is borderline to call.

ii) Normally active table, I came in but lost a couple of pots (after getting checkraised in some nasty spots)
I have 250ish in front of me limps to me in CO, I overlimp with BLACK TREYS. BTN limps, Tilted SB jams his last 25 $ without looking. Folds to me. Do we Iso here (we obviously are not deep enough to set mine vs BTN and should be in OK shape vs SB ATC range) ?
If we ISO jam, I expect BTN to call with AQ, 88+ maybe 77 (while I expect to raise most of his decent holding anyway)

I'd reraise iso both. Protected pots are usually annoying in terms of trying to realize equity, people bet too often, which is a mistake but is to the benefit of the allin player.

Hand 1 you are uncapped and all of the cold callers are capped. Rip it in. TBH QJ even if suited is a little optimistic to open from ep with 190.

Hand 2 you probably have an equity edge over a loose btn limp and sb atc. I like a jam here too. I think btn is very capped and almost never has 77+, AQ+ that you said he would need to call.

H1:

I don't like the initial open and would actually prefer an open limp over a raise, although nowadays I like an open fold the best. But if I am raising this I'm definitely iso'ing at this point with all this dead money. I'd probably go to something like $65 which gives us some preflop FE as well as some postflop FE if we shove our PSB (which will look super strong in a somewhat protected pot). With these shortish stacks also some argument for just shoving now although that may look more like what it is (i.e. a weakish hand trying to isolate instead of a monster actually looking for action).

I'm a little unclear on your notes regarding how AJ is a fold and AQ/99 is a borderline in your game. Do you mean facing the initial raise or facing a reraise? If you mean by facing the initial raise then I wouldn't attempt to isolate because it looks like you are simply up against far too tight a range that is unlikely to fold for these small stacks (we're only sitting ~65bb deep). If you mean these are the hands that are unlikely to continue to a reraise, then iso away as their initial flatting range is probably still live lol wide.

H2:

Really depend on how well Button hand reads. We probably shouldn't be overlimping a bunch of limpers with a very strong hand so we kinda look to have what we do. But if he's clueless or doesn't have the balls to do anything about it, yeah, I'd probably do a "normalish" type 3bet of $75 to isolate.

GcluelessNLnoobG

H1: Easy rip in.

H2: Tougher here as it is hard to rep too much so player dependent on BTN. He clearly does not have premiums or he would have raised, but if he is a thinking player and can see what you are doing then might be higher EV to just muck. It deffo is ISO or fold spot.

IMO, when an active game dries up & the effective stack is 60BBs & 1 guy only has $21, it's time for me to practice my "quit good" & rack up for the night. Now if I had $300+ in front of me & 3 players [whom I have a skill edge over] have me covered, well that's another story.

Just in case you are interested in RESULTS

i) Solomons
ii) Snowmen

BUSSSSTO each time

Valid and reasonable point.

Tbh I mostly lack the discipline to racm up half a buy in and call it a noghtt but rather try fo gii once b4 I leave

Actually irrational and stupid but sometimes you cant help it

Until you learn to do just that, rack up a loss & leave, you won't ever be 'quitting good.'
I've lost track of the number of people I see gii with their last ~$100 with some hand, because they're stuck $300 and don't find the point in taking the time to go to the cashier with a lousy $100 when they're stuck $300.00.

If we are both pulling a long-term profit, is the fact that I quit better than you, allowing me to realize a higher +Ev than you?

Regarding racking up when the game dries up, it's a little dependent on how long you expected to be there / expect the game will run and whether it will get better. I mean, I've been in the middle of a planned 10 hour session when the table has temporarily gone bad, but I just wait it out / do the best I can and hope the table gets better (which I would normally expect it to).

But if it's near the end of your planned session and the game goes bad, sure, cashing out early make sense.

ETA: And of course it's a major leak (like seriously huge) to be one of those guys who is down to his last $100 in chips and just looking for a spot to get it in. This ain't a tournament; it's a cash game and as such you should *never* have that mentality.

GcluelesscashingoutnoobG

Raising with 33 in that spot is awful. You are repping pretty much exactly what you have. Button's GII range has you crushed. Whatever happened to just calling and playing some poker postflop if the Button decides to call as well?

I am never down to 100, and lifetime I am at least even in running it up to even again vs going BUSSSSSTO as a short stack. Therefore it is not a huge leak for me. I still can patiently wait for my spot and literally never punt it off…