At a 9-handed 1/2 game. No history with villain 1, played in a round by round tournament with villain 2 where he didn't seem to understand how to bet the pot, so he is possibly an inexperienced player but only played roughly 10 hands with him total and no other info.

Effective stacks at $67, dealer error exposed J while dealing.

Hero is on the button in a 5 way limped pot with KJo
Flop (pot $10) K64r
Villain 1 in SB bets $7, Villain 2 in BB calls, folds to Hero who raises to $30.
Both villains call.
Turn (pot $100) is a an offsuit 4 so board is K644r
Villain 1 checks, Villain 2 bets $35.

What should I do here? Hands that beat me are AA, KQ, AK, K6, K4, 66, 64, KK, 4x. I don't think he can have a 4 here unless he already had 2 pair in which case I think he would almost always raise at some point on the flop, especially when hero has only 35 behind. Same thing with a set. So only hands that win now are AA, AK, KQ. Since these don't make too much sense for him to have either I think I should call and I am also getting 4:1 on the call, not enough to draw to a better hand but still pretty good odds. The only problem is what is he betting that KJ is ahead of? What should I do?

what was your plan on the flop?

without the short stack situation you should definitely fold because you'd be facing a river bet too with no plan.

here, meh...it's $35 to win $135 minimum. but it's a limped pot with a paired board and you've got tpgk. 1/2 in a casino with a possibly inexperienced player...normally in these situations, they have what they are representing and you are behind. I still think you fold

Plan was to shove any non-6,3,8 or A turn/induce shove on flop.

It was an idiotic raise on a super dry flop. You're never getting called by worse. The plan in a limped pot like this should be to call and re-evaluate on the turn depending on whether villain slows down. We're probably willing to call a bet of 18 into 31 on the turn but we need to proceed with caution as this guy is leading out into 4 people which is pretty strong.

As played, now there is so much money out there relative to the stacks that we just snap off the call and hope he is spazzing with 75 or a weaker K. I'm assuming that we're usually behind.

But IMO raising to an amount that pot commits us on a superdry board and then folding when the turn doesn't change much cannot be good both for mathematical reasons and for metagame reasons (I don't want my opponents to know that I like to fold big pots getting an amazing price). If anything, you'll get to see his cards and learn a lesson.

In cash games... if you're gonna raise postflop with top pair... make sure its in a raised pot and that the pot is huge relative to the stacks. Generally though, you should almost never be raising post flop with just top pair medium kicker.

Save your post flop raises for 2 pair+ type hands and monster draws (i.e. flush draw + OESD or pair + nut flush draw).

why is the raise 'idiotic'?

I'm not totally defending it, but I'm interested in your thought process. I can definitely imagine it being called down by worse ...definitely by 5 7, potentially by a weaker king, even by somebody with A6 who thinks you're bluffing.

And..even if it never gets called down by worse, are you never raising with top pair to take the pot down right now and be happy with your $25? It prevents draws getting there and weaker kings or even middle pairs hitting second pair.

Prob make it 20 pre and jam any flop

They do not call a raise to half effective stacks with those hands.

No. My goal with NLHE cash games is to get stacks in, in spots where I have good equity.

Its not like in a tournament where sometimes I'm happy to just take down the pot and preserve my stack while others are getting knocked out and we move up the money ladder.

Top pair in a limped pot is often too good to turn into a bluff by raising and scaring away worse hands and too weak for us to want to commit stacks (which is what you're doing when you raise to half effective stacks).

Regularly 3-betting and then folding is one of the worst leaks there is.