Its a jam or fold question at that stack depth. I'd jam AQ. AJ depends. A9o is an easy fold oop at any depth.

If you never called any raise for the rest of your life with A-9 off, you'd be fairly close to optimal.

This is a pretty interesting spot, because it's going to look like you have a big ace or med pp trying to take the money now, which you do.

It also looks a lot like UTG has something like a med PP, and he probably realizes that. Everyone is kind of transparent.

Your hand is slightly underrepped, however. And it's pretty unlikely anyone has AA or KK.

Maybe you could make it like 260. That way, you have the option to re-raise if SB jams, which puts UTG in an uncomfortable spot. If it goes jam, call, you can decide what to do then and should have a lot of info.

If it goes call call, you can narrow their hands down a lot and play a big pot IP with a nice hand.

Another hand I played on Saturday. My notes on it are not that detailed and I don't know if it's that interesting but here goes.
1/2 full ring nl
I'm on the BU with Q8o and the guy to my right makes it 7 after a few limpers.
He was an older, friendly gentleman. He made some strange small openings like these sometimes. Normal openings were usually around 11 or 12.
I usually don't play a hand like this but I knew all the limpers would call so I decided to see a flop.
6 ways to the flop, my stack was around 300 at this time. More or less, the table average.
Flop is Q K 8 , 2 diamonds.
Checks around to me. Hero?

Fold pre (unplayable hand, worst relative position)
Bet flop strong (draw heavy board). Re-evaluate if raised.

I was on the Button(BU)?

Relative position means your position relative to the raiser. You are first to act after the raiser, which gives you the worst relative position. That being said, Q8o is a hand you should be folding even with good relative position and multiple callers in front of you.

I missed that part. Thanks

+1 to what DC said

Also, 3 gappers are pretty junky due to their high RIO. Think of how happy you are getting in big money postflop with one of the biggest hands you can make on a JT9 board.

GcluelessNLnoobG

Completely agree, with one obvious exception:

HA Ha. Hey, yes, I work 9 to 5, it's an honest days work!
DC, don't crush my dreams of becoming a poker crusher.

anyways, yeah, your first analyses was spot on. The board was too wet for my liking, and, with so many people on board, I saw no reason to slow play.
I bet 50 and everyone folded. I'm fully aware of course that K 8/ K Q was possible, although I discounted pocket Kings because of the pre flop action and I blocked all other sets.
Was my bet of 50 too large?

PS. I know I'm probably going to get toasted for this reasoning but here's why I decided to play this hand.
The table was your typical limpy, loose pre flop 1/2 table.
Since I typically play rather tight, I have to use these opportunities to play along and give the impression that I'm one of the boys.
Ok. If y'all don't understand that, no worries, not everyone can comprehend my advanced poker theories. Wink, wink.

Y'all know that suited AT, the hand that makes the nuts more often than any other holding (fully 1.4% of all five-card boards) is a three-gapper, right?

But yeah, fold Q8o, even on the button after a few limpers and a small raise. Unless stacks are really, really, really deep.

It took me a little bit to figure out why ATs makes the nuts more often than AKs, AQs, or AJs.

1/2 middle of the road Friday afternoon game. Button straddle is on. UTG who starts with $85 makes it $20 to go. Only seen him raise once, and it was to $6 in an hour and he c/f a king high flop. Folds to me in the HJ and i see QJcc. CO and BTN have preloaded the fold. Sb has limped in for $5 but is a habitual limpfolder. Straddle plays really straightforwardly ($200stack) and won’t call light at all. Can we profitably call here when they will immediately take $6 OTF with a 7th if any bets go in?

I'm folding with these stacks despite the reads.

V1 is mawg reg who has played a normal tag range. Not too tight but on snug side. V2 is tag. Hero is lag. Hero covers, V1 $250, V2 $600.

V1 opens $12 utg, hero flats utg+1 with JJ, 2 calls in between, v2 squeezes in bb to $70, V1 folds, hero?

Thanks,
DT

Oops

Slam dunk fold.

Price is too high to set mine. A fold is nitty but certainly ok. I probably would give it up if I didn't have a sense of villains ranges and style. Just under pot is interesting for oop, but many would consider the sizing just fine, so hard to claim much info from it.

Bb 3 bet generally vv strong. Sizing is slightly higher than I would go (60-65) but not outlandish.

I would probably flat in game because....meh, f him but it’s probably a good fold unless we have strong read that sizing means kk or qq and we’re prepared to street poker an A high flop

1/2 nl casino
Eff. 200
Typical active 1/2 table with lots of raising and limping.
Hero MAWG limps with 44
V1 YWG, mostly raises when first to act and leads out on flop a lot when first to act or checked to.
V2 and 3 in blinds straightforward, predictable 1/2 regs
So, limped around and we see a flop
of 8 4 J cc
Blinds check and I decide to play fancy, knowing pretty much villain 1 will bet out.
V1 bets 10, 1 blind folds, the other calls.
Do we raise or just call hoping to trap again on the Turn?

You have to raise imo - too many action killing turns can roll out

Also raise pre

Also as played lead flop

I'm not arguing about your pre flop raise suggestion. I agree, small pocket pairs should sometimes be raised, but do you think all the time?

after I wrote this, I thought it may not be accurate for 1/2 tbh, which I haven't played for a long time. I play a lot bigger in more aggressive games against (mainly) better players - it's really hard to get away with limps and your set of 4s becomes really obvious on A 10 4 r or whatever. So I prefer to be totally balanced and open for a raise with all my range in various positions.

The advantage of opening small pocket pairs is that it keeps your range wider post flop and both your set can be disguised and you can better represent different hands on other boards.

But I guess if your table is limp happy and villains are droolers post flop, then I'd imagine there's some merit in limping

I totally agree with this. But, like you also said, you play against much better opponents.
The problem with always raising small pocket pairs in the games I usually play is villains are usually pretty sticky and pots more often go multi way, making it more difficult to win a hand if I don't improve.