Playing 1/1 recently in the UK and my friend played the following hand.
I'm sure he's played this hand pretty bad, but he is defiant and insists he played it well.

He is a good player and wins, basically crushes, at these stakes (not hard to do I admit) but just had a bit of a moment here.

Anyway, on to the hand.

Straddled to $2. 1 limp. Hero is UTG+2 with 77 (~$150) limps for $2, 2 limps, UTG (~$80) raises to $10. 2 folds, Hero calls $10, 2 folds.

Flop 445 ($28)

UTG($70) bets $15. Hero raises all in (eff. $70)

Ok so I won't say what the villain has here, but I will say he tank called.

Villian is slightly better than the average 1/1 drooler, but still terribad.

OK so obv he should be raising pre. I've tried explaining to my friend that shoving here is horrible because the guy can never call with worse and his range has us crushed (IMO villain is not cbetting this flop with A highs). Seems to me your getting calls from hands that crush you and folding out the hands you crush.

Thoughts?

i think this hand is a mistake from the get go... I wouldn't limp 77 here unless it was very common that hands went to flops multiway limped and players called down light for large bets (possible, but not a very common table dynamic). Once a player with a stack of 80 makes it 10, I am out. No longer set minning as I don't have nearly the right price.

As played, (and with no information on the villain) I would never, ever shove here. All shoving does is get called by TT+ and folds AJ+. I think we have no fold equity as villain is getting 2 to 1 to call and really has no legitimate reason to believe we are holding a 4.

With villains stack size, I really don't like calling this bet either, because it does pretty much commit us and I don't want to be committed, but if I know villain will cbet a big A here often enough and then slow down the turn I would call the flop bet and then try to get to a cheap showdown.

But again, I don't think this hand should have been played preflop and we could avoid the situation we put ourselves in by not limp callings a short stack.

your friends mistake is calling pre. His opponent does not have enough money to make set mining profitable. This is a snap fold pre flop.

Depends on villain.

And calling pre is 100% ok given we expect the flop to be 5 way. Folding is LOL bad.

The only thing LOL bad is the fact that you think its standard to set mine with 75BB's against an opponent that has 40BB's just because there is a possibility the two remaining players in the hand, whose stack sizes OP does not give, may or may not come along for the ride.

What is lol bad is that you read something and then cannot apply it properly because you didn't understand it in the first place.

We are not setmining HU.

This hand is likely to go 5 way to the flop. Bloated pot and stack sizes mean we always stack top pair when we hit.

WOOOOO HO OOOOOOOOOOOOOO profit

I have read some of your posts and you almost always give good insightful responses, but I don't know what you are thinking today.
This hand was played wrongly from the beginning. It is a fold pre to the raise, or fold on the flop/maybe a call/reeval. turn depending on the villain.

in the 1/2 game I play, people very rarely limp/fold to a $10 raise and I would expect it to go multiway to the flop 95%+ of the time so I would call pre here. It depends on the table so only OP could really decide whether it should be a call or fold pre

edit: as for post flop the shove is pretty bad as the only worse hands that might call are 66 and A5 if villain is even raising pre with these.

Tbh I never thought that folding a hand as strong a 77 pre, 7 handed, was fine. I was thinking about raising to around 8-10 rather than folding.

Anyway, the villain tank called the flop with 66, so we are crushing lol and won the hand. This was, IMO, the one and only hand where we can get a call and be ahead, and I'm certain this is what made my friend think he played it well, because he ended up winning while getting it in good.

You keep saying 5 way which is impossible with only two players behind left in the hand so the max we can get it is 4 way. That being said the most we will have in there is an extra $20. So you are trying to tell me that you think the extra $20 makes this a profitable set mine?

meh i am probably raising this pre-flop, dependent on table dynamic. but as played and without any reads on villain i think this is an obvious shove. cold call or min raise will inevitably lead to the same outcome (villain's stack in the middle) and we are not folding an overpair to a modest cbet, right?

why is villain leading out with such a lame cbet that offers us 3:1? surely he does not expect us to give credit for a 4, and unless he is terrible he can't expect a fold in this spot. so either he is slowplaying a made hand and begging for a call, or inappropriately (given stacks) testing the waters with a cbet to see if his AJ+ is good. i'd expect most short stacked villains with a made hand to shove the flop or CRAI in this spot - so either villain is getting overly fancy with his itty bitty stack or he is dominated at this point.

either way we have an overpair heads up against a villain with SPR of ~1. clear shove in my book. if villain shows up with A4 or 88+ then commend him for his next level play and make a mental note to suck out on him next time.

you can also expect a lot of calls from stubborn villains holding AJ+ that feel bullied by a big stack. i think your buddy played this optimally post flop. you obviously disagree - what was the correct line in ur opinion? fold to the $15 raise on flop??

I think raise to around $10 pre, then bet flop or shove over a lead by villain as we have now narrowed his range somewhat.

The way the hand was played, villain can have 88+ but I think if we raise pre then TT+ is 3betting pre. That only leaves 88 and 99 where we get coolered by on this flop.

edit - I also disagree that 'stubborn' players will call off $55 more with A high on this flop. I think it is apparant he is beat, this showing because he almost folded 66.

agree 100% with the ideal line pre.

and i can tell you with complete certainty - I play with tons of LLS players that will call in that spot with a short stack holding AJ-AK. half are idiots that feel pot committed, feel bullied and are just unable to lay down such a pretty hand w/two over cards.

the other half will actually give it some thought and call after deducing hero is shoving with air as 90% of players wouldve raised pre with any mid pair and certainly aren't calling w/anything that coordinates with the board.

clearly your amigo purposefully under repped his 77s to pull off a next level semi bluff on flop??

Interesting hand with a lot of different opinions. I think that if you are pretty sure that two limpers are coming in behind for the $10 it's marginally ok to call. You don't have good position, you have bad relative position, and it's not a situation where the raise is showing obvious strength making it more likely to get paid off if we flop a set. Actually, I'm liking the call less and less. Add to that the fact that it's a $1/$1 game, the raise is to 10bb which people do fold to.

Does anyone like a re-raise to iso the shorter stacked straddler? Seems like that could be a viable play.

AP, villains range is too wide to fold 77 on this board. If you call, pot will be $58 with $55 left. I would just prefer to shove. And as someone stated earlier, people do sometimes call with A-high in this situations, especially possible from a straddle raiser who is 'terribad'.

Set mine with 20:1 odds is best course. So fold to raise pre.

This is a $1/$1 game with a straddle. Expecting both limpers behind to call is not unreasonable. I would expect at least one of them to call and I'm surprised they both folded. This must be a pretty nitty table.

Calling with 7-7 is pretty marginal but not bad IMO. Yes, I understand set-mining odds. If we're heads up then it's a clear fold but the two limpers behind make it more attractive.

Another point that people seem to miss is that villain is obviously a terrible player. Who limp/re-raises UTG with 6-6? If you're going to make kamikaze plays like that then you at least have to make it enough for everyone to fold. Raising to $10 and playing 6-6 OOP to probably 2-3 callers is the definition of LOL bad.

So I don't think your friend really played it that bad.

I thought it's the straddler who raised.