Since moving over from LHE about a month ago, one of the (Many) things i struggle with is knowing when to push the action vs. when to play back and control the pot size. Below is a hand i played the other day and i'm curious to hear everyone's thoughts.

Hero ($300) - late 20s white male. Table opened about an hour ago and i've won a few small pots and lost a few. I haven't shown a hand down yet except for AK when i hit TPTK on the river after I c-bet the flop and turn went check/check. Playing a decent amount of hands but playing buttoned up in raised pots.

Villain ($300) - Early 30's. Somewhat aggressive. Has been involved in a bunch of pots and is up about $50 or so. He straddles everytime UTG and leads many flops in multiway pots. I haven't seen him 3! or shove at any point.

On to the hand:

Villain straddles UTG. 3 limps to Hero who calls on the button with A7. SB Folds, BB calls, Villain Checks.

Pot ($24) - Flop J56

BB Checks, Villain leads for $11. 2 calls to Hero who raises to $33. BB Folds, Villain Calls, 2 MP Limpers Fold.

Pot ($112) - Turn 9

Villain Checks, Hero bets $40, Villain Calls

Pot ($192) River: 2

Villain bets $50, Hero Raises All In, Villain thinks for a minute or two and folds.

So thoughts on a few things. First, the raise on the flop. I thought about this for a good minute or two, and decided to raise for a few reasons:

1) Value. If i'm behind right now, it can't be by much given that I have the nut FD as well as an over and a back door gutterball possibility.

2) I want to take initiative in the pot so that I can take a free card on the turn if I choose.

3) Deception. By raising my draws on the flop, it helps widen my range when I flop monsters like flushes/straights/sets and raise on the flop.

Thoughts on my thought process? What on raise sizing? Should I have pumped it up a bit more here?

Next is the turn. The bet sizing seems to be horrendous to me. I leveled myself at the table and tried to make a meek looking bet so villain would sense weakness and x-raise or take the juicy pot odds and draw to an lower flush. I hate this move and I probably should have made it about $65-$70ish

River seems standard to me as played.

Thanks for your time and thoughts.

You thought process isn't bad but your bet sizing is really bad. Flop raise is good but should be larger if ur looking for fold equity(which is the only reason to raise). I raise to 50-60 to maximize fold equity. Turn bet is soo terribly small and it should be for 2/3 pot 75 ish is good. Our goal is to get stacks in, setting up a 1/2 pot shove on the river to make villan feel priced in to a call.

In a multi way pot Flatting isn't terrible BTW. Honestly it would of been better to just flat rather than raising so small.

I like the smallish raise size on the flop to keep weaker draws in (calling flop is ok too). Turn is pitifully weak. We want to play for stacks so start shoveling money in. Preflop and river are standard. Any river raise is going to look super strong so I think shove is fine.

Why is flatting multiway better? Also, is a flat still better if the two callers between hero and villain fold before the raise?

The value of flatting multiway is that it keeps smaller flush draws in. Frontdoor flushes rarely play for stacks unless two people have made a flush. That said, your raise was small enough that the MP limpers would've stuck around with any legit draw.

I'd make it $60 on the turn, instead of $40. If you were oop, then there would be a stronger argument for betting small to look scared. Villain would have position, he'll be tempted to raise the scare card.

Since he was oop, it looks like he instead decided to call the turn and bet virtually any river. That's a pretty solid line from him, actually. If you had a hand like 56, aj, or 78, you'd think hard about folding. But that reveals the flaw in betting small on the turn with the nuts. He either has to attempt a check-raise bluff against a tight player who has shown strength or he has to donk-fold the river. Neither of those lines will get stacks in the middle.

Because if they're 4 better hands than yours and 3 of them fold you don't benefit at all. Actually it's bad for you because you get worse odds to draw.

Even if it's unlikely: If J9 folded to your less than 1/3rd pot raise it's a catastrophe.

Think about it this way op, if you didn't raise there would be 4 people to the turn.

pot: 44
You bet 60 2 callers 124
V1 bets, 50, caller, you raise all in
44+180+100 you raise all in they fold.

Pot: 324

The way you played it was how the pot ended up.

88+80+50
Pot: 188

You lost $136 in value see how bet sizing adds up. I know there is a lot of variables with this, but I'm just trying to make a point. ( didn't calculate rake or the limp preflop)

I agree

I disagree. Raising small to give lower FD's "pot odds" to draw and die to an overflush can have huge value.

I agree. Also for fat value OTT.

I'd bet a bit more on the flop and turn but overall it isn't bad at all. River is a classic blocking bet. He was never going to call any raise.

Thanks for all the input. Terrible sizing aside, which I knew I screwed up, how does the flop flat vs. raise decision change if the limpers between villain and I both fold.

There is no way in hell any flush draw is folding to our flop raise.

As played, flop raise isn't terrible, could be a little bigger but to be honest it is probably on the small side of acceptable. The main point is that the raise retakes the initiative ensuring flop is checked to us on the turn so we can draw for free to the river if we like or we can take another stab at it. And villains can still fold hands that beat us like 88/99/TT so your raise is probably on the low side of okay but overall it's okay.

The turn bet has merit as you said you are trying to induce. However, the real question is, is this villain aggro and is this villain prone to pouncing on weakness. Too often I find that thinking players make moves in a vaccuum. You will often hear them say, "Well I did that hoping you would do this?" My question is "Well, how many times did you observe villain doing "this" "? and the answer will usually be "Well, not many times..."

So, if they haven't done "this" a lot then what makes you think you can induce them to do "this".

In this case, "this" is raising weak bets. So, if V has an aggro history of check/raising weak bets then by all means your turn bet is perfect. Likewise, a baby flush should check/raise quite often in this spot. However, if V's range is more weighted towards Jx hands, then we should just bet the turn for value.

IN general, I'm a big fan of just blasting away this turn. Baby flushes are never folding and can still c/r shove over the top of our 2/3 pot sized bet. And Jx will still call the bet and if V is a thinking player he could still decide to make a move and rep a flush and c/r us even if we bet 2/3 pot.

River is standard.

Overall, I think you played this hand okay. Flop and turn bets could have been bigger, but they are not super terrible

The main takeaway from this hand for someone from a limit background is you need to plan for future action and streets more in NL. In a limit game you can raise the NFD on the flop with impunity because you know you can always call (or even raise) a 3bet profitably. In a NL game you need to consider the possibility of a big 3bet that you might not be able to call profitably.

In this hand I doubt you're going to get 3bet shoved over on the flop often enough that it should deter you from a raise, but you should always consider the possibility of facing that big bet or raise and how you'll react BEFORE you put in the first bet or raise. This means sometimes you do things in NL like just calling a raise with AQ preflop if villain mostly folds or 4bets and you can't continue against his 4bet range.