Hero is UTG with 88(both black but not relevant). Relevant villains are MP with about $150 in stack and button with about $300. Hero has $315. Both villains are very aggressive and MP villain has shown a strong tendency to overplay hands or just straight bluff. For example in a previous hand he raised PF with 85o, bet pot on a A96r flop then shoved after a turn 6. Button villain from this hand called him with K high, so he might well be a bit of a station. OTTH

Hero straddles and is dealt 88. MP villain, BU villain and both blinds call. Pot is about 27 after rake. Flop is 973r. Hero checks, MP villain leads out for $40, BU calls, blinds fold. Hero?

My thoughts at this point - I typically donÂ’t straddle but I did so because most players were straddling and I didnÂ’t want to give off a nitty image. Even the aggro villain and the station would probably notice and not give any action when I did hit something. With 88 and four callers I just checked my straddle - IÂ’m not going to be able to thin the hers much, and I might well get reraised by MP. IÂ’m set mining so I have no issue with seeing a cheap flop multi-way.

Flop is pretty good for my hand. MP likely is betting such a flop with almost any hand he has. He has been doing so on low flops most of the time. BU call doesnÂ’t seem too threatening as he has been calling with junk and folding quite a bit on later streets. Hero calls.

IÂ’m less interested in the rest of the hand, but AP turn was a 7, giving me the OESD in addition to my pair and likely not changing much. Hero checks and MP shoves $104. BU folds and hero calls. Seemed like a pretty easy call at that point especially with the draw added to my already pretty decent equity vs MPÂ’s range.

I would raise preflop maybe to 30. Your hand is good against limpers and when you raise the straddle, it looks like you are like, so it creates confusion.

I wouldn't straddle. I've straddled exactly 0 times in my 5757 hours of 1/3 NL, already have a very nitty image, and yet somehow I still do just fine because players are mostly so bad that you don't need to give-action-to-get-action / etc.

I'm cool with just seeing a flop preflop.

I'd just check/fold the flop to this sizing / action / this multiway.

GcluelessNLnoobG

If you straddle at this depth you're just getting it in pre. If they all limp to you its an easy check to set mine and then fold when you whiff. I don't straddle though. People are already short stacked enough at my 1/3 game that it's basically pointless.

raise pre. as played just fold the flop.

straddling is w/e. people underrate meta/social psychology/individual psychology on this forum (probably because its filled with people with ASD). i personally rarely straddle because im fairly nitty and also like to convey a nit image as my strategy values fold equity and inducing bluffs over everything else. that said plenty of crushers always straddle (just watch the high stakes pros on youtube). depends on what image you want to create and how being forced to play a wide range to defend your straddle affects your overall play.

Most of the time straddles are -EV. In good games you get labeled as a nit if you don't straddle. Also, straddles are much more +EV for good players than they are for passive, weak players regardless of the game. Just speaking from experience.

So if you're going to straddle, then checking your option in the big blind with 88 is awful. Straddling is equally awful if you're not an aggressive player. So you've started out the hand with two mistakes.

Raise pre and go from there. I can't help you with the rest of the hand as played when you start out so poorly. Sorry to be harsh but you need to re-evaluate your game from the ground up if you want to succeed.

Are straddles ever consistently plus EV even for good players? I can defo understand that they will be losing less EV, but for positive EV, I suspect it has to be quite table specific (i.e. very nitty), rather than generally profitable, especially when so much of low stakes is made up of calling stations.

As for the hand, I think of 88 as slightly more than a set mining hand generally, so I raise pre. 77 would be my 50/50 raise/call, and I'd probably call all lower PPs. Obviously very table dependent.

I would iso Pre around 65-75$, targeting mainly MP but maybe BU also, can't imagine anyone with 99+ to just call so you are likely ahead and imo the difference in win-rate between iso and checking is huge
For how played flop is obviously a call vs these guys, however what would be your decision if turn comes an overcard to the flop T J Q K or A, and MP jams, BU folds, would you call here?

I think 88 is good enough to ISO with (at least 35 or so), narrowing the field makes this hand much easier to play multiway, there's also the chance it folds all round and we pick up the dead money.

Check fold flop, especially against this sizing, doing anything else is lighting money on fire.

Check fold flop. Even if you turn your set you still might be no good. Paying off 2 streets to a guy with 96o is silly. You’re also heavily blocking the best bluffs.

Well I think hero implies that they are way out of normal human ranges here, and both V are maniacs, the way to exploit a manic is bluffcatch a lot, + hero is making assumption that V on the BU is folding turn quite a lot so is call really that bad? I think given the information we have at least 50% equity or so, yes we lose to some 9x but we also beat all the bluffs and there should be plenty. The problem is though that we are OOP to both V, so we can't realise all of our equity on the turn

FWIW this worked out pretty well for me but I wasn’t really sure what the best way to play these opponents. Obviously this wasn’t a GTO spot; opponents were playing in a very exploitable manner. I know my straddle was not good; straddles aren’t hood in general and I probably should have raised PF.

As it happened, hero called the MP shove and MP showed 64 for bottom pair. Just for overkill, river was a T completing the straight. and hero stacked MP. Thank you for all the replies. Even though it worked out well, I still like to question hands where I truly wasn’t sure about my line.