Hero ($2800) - We've only been in the game for a couple of hours and we have basically no history with villains. Our image should be pretty nondescript and irrelevant to this hand. With the exception of one big hand (described below), we haven't been too involved.

V1 ($800) - A psycho Asian woman. She plays hyper aggressive - raising a ton of flops, 3betting quite a bit pre, barreling all kinds of hands in all kinds of spots, and making sick bluffs. A few hands ago we played a big hand with her - We had AKs and raised to $35. She 3! to $125. Another player cold calls. We 4! to $330. She 5! to $720. Other player folds. We shove for about $1350 total. She calls. Board runs out ten high and AK is good

V2 (Covers Hero) - Is a competent tight player who seems to be a regular in the game. He's hardly played any hands since I got here, but he made a solid fold in the one hand he did play which demonstrated a clear ability to assess relative hand strength.

V3 ($1,000) - Nitty rec player.

V4 ($700) - Fishy rec player. Never folding anything decent.

V4 straddles.
Hero is UTG w/ JJ and raises to $60.
V1 is CO+1 and calls.
V2 is Button and calls.
V3 is BB and calls.
V4 calls.

Flop ($305): 854

Checks to hero.

Should we continue or check? I think this is a pretty tricky decision.

bet 200 and hope psycho asian woman or fishy rec player stuffs it. if nitty rec player raises you fold, if competent tight player raises you fold.

hope you won.

I don't understand what is tricky about the flop decision? 200-225 is good for this texture

Didn't read rest of hand, waiting to hear why you opened UTG 6x with JJ.. and what's your opening size in the same position with AA, AK, AQ, 88, etc?

It's a straddled pot. Also, bet.

Easy to play this hand. I would bet $250 here.

Vs the deepest villain, the SPR is around 3. With JJ overpair, it is a big mistake to check here. You are committed in this hand and you must always bet here, be it flop/turn/River. Bet, bet, bet. Snap call any raises.

Yeah didn't see the straddle, and now I don't see why it's a tricky spot.. OP what's your argument for not betting?

Well, my first argument against betting would be the fact that there are so many other players in the hand. Having an overpair 5 ways on a super wet board with no real backdoor equity is imo not a spot where we're thrilled to start piling chips into the pot. Checking controls the pot size and disguises the strength of our hand.

My main argument, though, is the psycho to act behind me. If we bet and she calls (which should happen relatively often), this can induce more calls which will set up a lot of really awkward turn decisions for us. Whereas if we check and induce a bet from the psycho (which should also happen relatively often), we can shove over her most of the time and feel great about it.

I did decide to check.
V1 bets $210
V2 calls $210
V3 folds.
V4 folds.
Hero ???

I know I just said that my plan most of the time was to shove over her, but obviously I can't just shove over V2 given how deep we both are. How should we proceed from here?

Bet flop 175-200 imo

As played, call and check turn. Hopefully V1 shoves and V2 folds. Then we can call most turns.

If turn is wet then I'd check fold to any aggression or big calls from V2. If turn is dry then I'd check and probably call another street 2 way and 3 way.

V2 should be raising most of the time if he has a hand that beats JJ. His range contains 8x, pair + GS such as 66/77/87/65, medium draws, and 99-TT.

His nutted hands being 76s, sets, and combo draws are likely to raise flop more often then not imo -- do you disagree?

As played I like a checkraise to $600. It forces crazy asian to shove or fold, and if she shoves it makes it difficult for V2 to call with any of his medium equity hands (even naked flush draws) knowing the price is mediocre, he's unlikely to get value in a dry sidepot, and he may only get to see the turn (as he may expect a large bet OTT)

However, if the checkraise does fold out the asian women and gets called by V2 it does put you in a tricky spot but you can check/decide -- I expect him to be taking the free card more often than not with anything but the absolute top of his range.

I don't like c/jam with JJ here, because if as you said you induce a bet from psycho, there's too much left to shove over the top if it's HU, and if it is multiway and you shove, she's calling often and others with their draws are well justified to call as well. There is a huge equity difference in such a pot holding AAh, KKh, or JJh because JJh 1) often can't backdoor a 4card flush and win; and 2) don't block someone bricking their draws but hitting a higher pair.

I also don't like a jam given precisely what happened, ie the bad player doesn't put money in, other more reasonable players do, but since you didn't bet you have no idea how strong their hands are...

Lastly, I think you should strive to almost always focus more on the players acting last in pots like this(whether they are good or bad), than the bad player that might sit to your direct left in this case but doesn't close the action. Usually the bad player here won't put you in a difficult spot because they are not able to put everyone on correct ranges and act in correct analysis of ALL remaining in the hand. Depending on their tendencies the bad player is more likely in a multiway pot to actually act predictably and telegraph their likely holdings, even if they are "unpredictable" in the way they play. It's the good player that has position, closes the action, that is able to handread, that could take advantage in a multiway raised pot drawy flop like this that could make it super difficult for you with what is a medium-strength hand. As well as choosing to protect my hand/valuebet/define their range/whatever, you should be focused on how your action is perceived by the stronger players in the hand with good position who can either be induced into a mistake, or play more straightforward and define their hand to you, or prevented from stealing the pot, etc etc.

I don't know if all that helps, I'm tired and rambling a bit.. ;-)

This actually helps quite a bit, thank you.

I admittedly played this hand a bit scared. Perhaps my check/shove plan was a bit flawed. I just hated having the psycho on my direct left with 3 players to act behind her. It felt like things were going to get crazy if I cbet the flop, and I wanted to avoid those situations with my hand. Had the psycho been on my direct right, I would have been comfortable cbetting.

And I think you make a very good point about focusing on the player closing the action.

I pretty much agree. There's a non-zero chance that he can only have sets, 99-TT, and high flush draws given how tight he was playing so far. But his most likely range is as you described.

But I decided not to check/raise him because not only does it keep our hand under-repped, but I think our range is more capped than his. I don't think it ever makes sense for us to check a really strong hand on the flop, and he's probably aware of this. He, on the other hand, could have stronger hands some of the time.

Summary:

V4 straddles.
Hero is UTG w/ JJ and raises to $60.
V1 is CO+1 and calls.
V2 is Button and calls.
V3 is BB and calls.
V4 calls.

Flop ($305): 854

Checks to hero.
Hero checks.
V1 bets $210.
V2 calls $210.
Folds to hero.
Hero calls $210.

Turn ($935): 5

Hero checks (I think this is standard).
V1 checks.
V2 bets $350.
Hero ???

Would you ever consider folding?

Your hand is way under repped, never folding to that sizing especially.

when you check the flop 5 way oop you make the hand much harder to play. This is live poker and most people play straight forward. As played I am not folding.

As played you definitely cannot fold.

He could be betting TT/99 for value as played -- you're hand looks more like hearts then anything else, and if any part of his value range was going to be most likely to raise the flop it's 54. So I can't really put him on that very often, and now less combos of 5's. Mostly 44/88

Call turn, evaluate river.

Not a spot I'd expect him to bluff at river very often but can see him betting turn relatively wide.

Thx for the feedback everyone.