1/3 live. Game plays live straddle from any position (except blinds), action starts pre next to act after straddle position and continues back to the straddle.

Game has been playing pretty straight forward for most part, not a lot of 3 betting pre unless pot is straddled.

The hand:

8 Handed

HJ: V1 ($700+) Straddles to $6 (60's male has been straddling A LOT. Keeps defending straddles with literally ATC. Made several random str8's and so forth and has been getting paid off by other rec players)

CO: V2 ($300+) Flats (Early 50's male. Overvalues TP's but, will fold in face of aggression with those hands. Pretty straight forward. Will call 3 bets if pot is going to go multiway)

BUT: V3 ($450+) Squeeze to $30 (Late 40's male, pretty new to table. Seems relatively competent. Has been active, playing pots IP and aggressive. Has been here enough to get reads on most of the table. Instinct/read is telling me he seems capable of squeezing lite/making plays IP.)

SB folds

BB: V4 ($250+) Flats $30 (Early 20's Asian male. Puts way too much in pre with weak holdings, call a lot of bets pre, playing pretty fit or fold post. Type of player you usually view as complete dead money. Might not even understand rules of the game fully.)

UTG: Hero ($340) dealt QsQd (38o male, played a good bit vs V1 and V2. Havent shown down a lot of hands due to missed flops or lack of action. Probably being viewed on the tighter side.)

2 players left to act after me before V1

UTG+1 ($75) mid 40's female, seems prone to throwing stack in with marginal holdings, not showing when she loses, rebuying short

UTG+2 ($400+) 50+ male, pretty straightforward aside from seeming to want to get involved with V1 when possible. Views me as solid.

Hero? (Not sure it matters but, while deciding what to do/thinking, taking a whole 30-45secs, Straddler calls clock on hero)

I wouldn't expect a light reraise behind us, so I definitely wouldn't flat hoping someone else does our dirty work.

I would probably 3bet to $100 to setup a PSB shove. If CO shoves preflop, we're in a gross spot (looks like AA/KK waiting to trap). If Button shoves (especially if he 3bets a lot), meh, I go with it and hope I'm up against AK/JJ; if he has better, cooler.

Hand is too strong / stacks too short / too much dead money to just flat and see a flop / setmine / etc.

GimoG

When there is a straddle, your spr is essentially reduced by half. with 50 bbs we can not just flat and hope for a good flop to GII, I think you have to raise here. The lower variance route is to shove and take down the dead money, higher variance route is to make it 120 and shove on any flop.

Before I continue the hand, are we ever planning on sizing it as to give improper setmining odds and folding to a shove from either CO (which I discount by my read of him) or the BUT Squeezer?

Not sure I like 3-betting to $100 - $120. Even though V might think you could possibly be doing this light, I think you are getting called called by JJ+, AK only, maybe 10's. AK is getting odds to see a flop, and nearly everything else folds. (V needs to put in $70 - $90 more to win $170 - $190.)

Betting $140 denies AK these odds. (V is putting in $110 to win $210 and QQ's have an 8% chance of hitting a set when AK hits TP.) From there it's an easy shove on any non-A, non-K flop. Two questions:

1) If called, are we committed on any flop? I don't think so, but some may disagree.

2) Is V likely to turn pp's like JJ's and 10's into bluff on an A or K flop? I am inclined to think he'll be happy enough to check it down to SD.

The other option is to 3-bet to $75 and play poker OOP with what is very likely to be a much stronger and disguised hand. This should keep in most of V3's range given his obvious spot for a wide raise and your obvious spot for light 3-bet.

The extra $45 denies odds for smaller pp's to set mine. If someone 4-bets, you have the choice of letting it go depending on sizing and villain. If your queens get to SD, you are setting yourself up for future light c-bets against V3. Sounds like he'll be attacking repeatedly from your SB, BB, and UTG.

I guess the hand plays itself out pretty much after my preflop action.

I make it $100 total to go.

At the time, was thinking what amount I could make it to deny proper set mine odds but, still get away from it if I my read is that I'm only getting jammed on by KK/AA.

I think just a little more might have been right, maybe 110 or so.

Results:

your stack size is right in the grey area where i dont know if i prefer 4b'ing to 120 or shipping it pre.

if you had like 300 or less i'd ship it and with 400 i'd def make it 120, dunno what's best with 340, hand seems pretty std though

BTN isn't remotely competent if hes trying to squeeze 22 here btw, i'd really only expect to ever be beat by 99 on that flop

might be greedy but i'd sometimes check flop here as played if i thought BTN might spaz out and shove a PP to protect vs AK or something stupid like that.