New table, formed almost entirely of folks knocked out of the weekly tournament. Standard mix of 1/2 weak/passives and gambloors. There are 2 halfway decent players (still with gamblers fallacies, but at least with some hand selection and concept of position) on my immediate left, a row of middle aged Asian men across from me and a couple of loose passive short stacks to my immediate right.

V1, UTG: $300 Halfway decent young player with belief in luck (hot seats, "most flops have had an X, so I should play those," etc.) and tendency to talk too much about how people should have played their hands, but more competent than most of the table.
V2, UTG+2: $113 Middle-aged Asian reg. Plays too many hands and seems to have the gambool in him, but not a complete maniac
V3, MP: $75 Middle-aged Asian reg. ALWAYS limps along if gets to him unraised, calls most raises pre-flop. I think he has played at least 12/15 hands dealt so far on table. Cannot, EVER, fold a draw.
Hero, SB: $250 Prob seen as tight, but stabby, if anyone is paying attention. Have only been involved in two pots so far, both of which I raised PF and c-bet flop. Took one down, and shut down when called on second, but won pot with PP (2 overs on board) when checked down.

V1 straddles to $7 UTG, saying "its time to get some action on this table"
V2 and V3 each call $7, all others fold
Hero in SB looks down at AK and raises to ????

I would go $40-45, 3x + 1 for each victim involved. It folds out any garbage hands, gets shoved on by the shorties with worse, and makes the pot an ideal size to minimize decisions if we hit a pair.

We should be elated if one of the shorties shoves on us--I will get it in fistpumping with 50 bbs with AK.

we want calls from the shorties with Ax. i dunno $25?

i prefer to accept a multi-way pot here and be cautious continuing past the flop if we don't hit, rather than popping it to $35 or $40 and maybe getting folds from Ax and getting HU against a shorty who's committed. i don't wanna put more money in the pot with A-high (by c-betting) when we have no fold equity because half of villain's stack is in the middle.

i'm having trouble seeing one of these SS's limp/shoving anything we beat here. OP correct me if i'm wrong based on your reads, but i feel like they're limp/folding KQ and raising AJ.

In a normal hand (no straddle, average raise size, say $12) V1 and V2 are both limp calling 22-99, any 2 paint below AJ, any suited ace, suited connectors 45-TJ. AJ+ and TT+ they are open raising. I would suspect (though I've never seen it) that both might be capable of limp/shove with KK or AA. This is the first straddled pot I've seen them in, and I am frankly inexperienced with straddles and their effects on limping ranges, and raising ranges, and l/c ranges.

This may sound surprising, but it may have been the first multi-way straddled pot that I've raised PF. No straddles online or in my casino in Germany, and they are rare at this casino. I've pretty much only seen them in home-games, and rarely even there. Mostly I've only opened against straddles in position, or coming along on a limp fest with speculative hands.

Sorry, numbers wrong above and too late to edit. It is Vs 2 and 3 that I am describing above. V1 is usually tight in EP, though I have no idea about straddle defense.

~30

make it $35 or $40 preflop as suggested above
AK is too strong to just call with in this situation unless you feel that the straddler will raise when it gets to him and then you could squeeze reraise

i thought about 30. prob get one caller at least.

I think maybe raise to 50, the straddle said he wanted to get some action at the table so you are going to get a call from him like 75% time and when he calls that makes it more likely for the other guy to call + it looks really strong so they're more likely to fold to your c-bet and you don't have to play multiple streets out of position.

I make it 35-40

I dont mind taking the pot of 24 down preflop since I'm oop with a non made hand

I would also cbet from early on most if not all flops for like 60-70% of the pot

OK, next action...

Hero raises to $21. Much too small, I realize now, but I didn't think the shorties could make themselves call any more, and I was sure it was enough to make them calling with any speculative hand a major mistake.

I was thinking of it as being likea 3-bet, but in this type of pot, it's really more like a standard raise over limpers and I should go 3x+1 per limper, shouldn't I?

UTG folds. V1 and V2 both flat.

Flop comes K10 T

Hero:????

Villain 1 is young kid in your OP, but Im assuming you mean that both asian guys called.

Pretty standard spot with their stacks being so shallow. bet/call or bet flop & bet turn.

Bleah, too late to edit. Yeah, V1 folds, V2 and 3 (asians above) call

Pot is $65 after painful rake and BBJ drop.

to clarify, flop is K T T?

c-bet/call $50

Man, My typing sucks when I'm tired. Yeah, flop is KTTss, or K,10,10ss, take your choice.

with stack sizes and TP/TK we are committed (SPR approximately 1.5 against villain with largest stack)
C-bet $40 to $50 and be willing to call a shove.
If either villain just calls then shove turn or check/call shove on turn
shove river if turn went check/check

Well, glad to know my line was pretty much standard.

Hero bets $50, v2 raises to $92 AI, V3 calls for less than my bet. Hero calls.

So, what is a general sizing for raises in straddles pots? 3x straddle plus one per limper?

yeah 3x straddle plus 1 per limper sound about right..

but what if you're first to act after the straddle and not in a great position post-flop?
then 5x straddle?

do whatever you do for limped pots. i find that at 1/2 people's limping ranges basically don't change when there is a straddle (although it's $5 at my room, not $7). in fact sometimes they're wider because everyone senses a big pot brewing.

with shortened SPR post flop i guess your raising range should be tilted towards hands with immediate value.

first instinct says 40. maybe 35.

It's usually $4 or $5 at this room as well, but by the house rules one can have a live straddle up to the maximum legal bet in Colorado, which is $100. Straddles are rare, though, and usually small. The biggest I've seen was straddle to $12.

You're right about ranges not changing, even for shorties for whom it significantly impacts SPR. V's showed up with QJo and 9Ts.

nice, everyone connected.

ya we're getting it in all day here given villains and stack sizes imo. i raise a bit more pre but i still disagree with a few posters who make it 40 or so. it doesn't work well for the eff stacks against v2 and v3 imo

otherwise wp