The game is £1-2. About an hour in, I've been playing quite laggy winning lots of pots without show down and the few times I've been called I've shown big hands. I've run my starting £400 upto about £1,000.

Villain 1 is a winning regular who has a good feel for the game, but generally plays a bit too loose and not aggressive enough. He has me covered.

Villain 2 is new to me but he seems reasonably competant from what I've seen so far. He's playing £140.

We're playing 7 handed and the rest of the table is soft.

I limp after two other limpers with 5 6 in the hijack. Villain 2 calls. Button calls. Villain 1 raises to £15 from BB. I call. Villain 2 calls. Button calls

The flop comes Q 8 9 (£65)

Villain 1 leads for £40. I call. Villain 2 calls. Button Folds. I chose not to raise here because of how active I've been so far (especially against Villain 1) and becasue to rasie from the blinds he must usually have a premium starting hand, so I don't think I get enough folds to justify the semi-bluff here (thoughts?)

Turn: T (£185)

Villain 1 check. I check. Villain 2 goes all-in for £85. Villain 1 thinks briefly and calls.

First, do you dislike my check on the turn? I'm not sure why I checked. In hindsight it's probably bad. I'd hate to see another club roll off on the river. But having checked what's the best play when it gets back to me?

If I were to raise I'm not sure the Villain 2 would call me with many worse hands, but I'm also not sure that he has many better hands for me to be worried about. I guess some of the time he just flats here with either A K or A Q, but he probably raises those hands in this spot a decent amount of the time.

If I raise what am I hoping to achieve? I think the only worse hands that he calls with are Aces with the Ace of Clubs, AQ with the Ace of clubs, or top set (with or without a club) and not always with all of those hands if I make a big raise. So there is argument that I need to protect my hand/get value from draws, but is it the overriding consideration?

So what do you think? How much does the all-in shorter stack affect our decision?

In this spot I am just calling OTT and going for a solid value bet on the river if no club rolls off and board doesn't pair. We have a strong showdown hand but not something im willing to stack off with this deep. I actually like the check on the turn because it does under rep our hand to a thinking player who would expect you to lead out with clubs. There are some merits to raising on this turn to build a side pot but I think the downside outweighs any positive here- opening yourself up to getting blown off the hand or getting into a big pot where you may be drawing to one out.

This is why I don't really like over limping small suited cards, and why I like to limp Axs.

I'd typically raise this pre the first time.

As played, just call the turn and make a decision on the river. A raise here is a flush always, and you have a very weak flush.

I guess you could maybe raise fold to protect your equity, but the only result you want is Villain 1 to fold.

Here is my assumption about his range. He's not cbetting AK into 3 players on that board unless he's got the AcKc, and he might just call the AcKc on the turn to suck you in since a raise by him would only get called by the straight flush. His most likely range is JJ+. The only hand in his range that I think calls a bet on the river is JJ. AcKc might raise and the rest would fold.

Hands that you would need to charge are JJc, QQ, KKc/AAc. I don't think he reraises you with any of this range if you raise the turn since you are telling him you have a flush and he has no reason to believe you would lay it down.

Since his river calling range is so narrow and his turn draw range is so wide, I think a value raise on the turn is in order.

Pray for a safe river and make very very small value bet that JJ just can't pass up. If the river is a club or pairs the board, most likely check/fold. I don't think many people would be bluffing there.