Hey guys, Long time lurker, first time poster.

$1,3 NL small PA Casino

Relevant info: Last hand for the day, but table does not know this. 30 year old white guy. Room had two $1,3 tables that dropped down to one due to a small tournament starting up. Play is 6 handed.

Hero: Stack size $900, played for about 4 hours ran $300 stack to $900 playing pretty much ABC, value betting some big hands and letting aggro villains lead on some other hands. Image somewhere between TAG and Tight Passive if anyone is paying attention.

V1: $63, younger Indian kid played with him a bunch over the last year. Lots of history. Seems like he could be a strong player but can't seem to lay hands down when he knows he should. When he is this short he's shoving the flop with anything that he thinks has any equity.

V2: $225, middle aged white guy. Pretty bad, plays hands based on absolute strength instead of relative. Saw him tank forever with JJ on a AK7 board before finally folding to what I can only assume was OMC's AA, KK or AK earlier. (OMC made it 35 after a couple limps pre)

The Hand: First to act, A, J raise to $11. My raises today have been between $12 and $18 depending on # of limpers, etc. I made it $11 because we had just dropped to 6 players.

4 callers including V2 MP and V1 on Button

Flop: 89T approx $40 in pot after rake

Hero has NFD + SD, little confused on best action here and decides to check, checks thru to V1 who shoves his remaining $52.

V1 could have anything from pair + FD to flush, straight, 2 pair
Options seem to be shove and drive other players out unless they have a flush or flopped a set, call and hope for the best or fold.

Hero?

Disclosure: I suck at shorthanded games.

Anyhoo, if I'm raising AJo, I'm raising much more to thin the field. We don't want to be going eleventeen ways to a bloated flop OOP with this hand. I'd much rather have folded preflop than have this result.

So long as any stacks giving action on the flop aren't super deep like we are, my default plan would be to check/shove this flop. We should have decent FE, and have nice hand equity + dead money if we are looked up.

As played, I *think* I still follow thru with that plan. My main goal was to get lots of dead money in the pot with perhaps some FE, but that obviously ain't the case now. However, I'm guessing it is best to go HU against the shortstack with our decent hand equity + dead money, especially since he could be shoving light; there's also a chance a shove folds out hands that have decent equity in the pot (such as a pair). If we just call, our implied odds are also low (we are unlikely to get paid off with an obvious 4-to-a-flush/straight on board in a protected pot).

GcluelessNLnoobG

I lead 25 at the flop. This way, when short stack shoves, which you know he will, you can re raise. You might not, but it helps if the other players know you can re raise and it totally helps you define their ranges for cheap. Check calling puts you in trouble where you're calling it off if someone behind you smashed flop.

Checking this flop is really bad imo.

What is MPs stack size?

I bet the flop 25-30$. If I didn't have such a great piece of this board I would just check/fold and let it go (if I had raised pre with AcKc for instance). However, We have a great draw to the nuts (9 outs) and draw to a straight which is worth something here (6 outs not counting hearts).

As Played:
With 13BB in the pot and a shove all in for another 17BB I would raise to 75BB in order to isolate V1 and maximize FE versus V2. If you raise smaller and V2 comes over the top for All-in. It will be almost impossible for you to fold given the dead money in the pot. So in this situation I would like to ensure that we just stick that money in up front in order to capitalize on any FE we might have versus V2.

The worst case scenario is that V1 already has a straight flush. Which would be unfortunate. However, if he has something like KhQh with an out to the straight flush we still have 25% equity in the hand. If we had perfect information and knew that V2 and MP were folding behind and all we did was call the $52 to win $92. That's slightly less than 2:1 at 1.8:1. This means you would need about 36% equity in the hand to make it a profitable call. Given that your read is he will shove with any piece of equity I am making this play in order to isolate him as I think we are going slightly EV+ with this move.

Any reads on V2 thinking he'll call or fold?

3 callers, 4 players total including myself. V2 started the hand with about $225. Other MP villain was between $200 and $250. I did take a look at the other players yet top act. V2 was still paying attention leading me to believe he had something to continue with. MP was watching TV, ready to muck.

Agree with your pot odds analysis, but I don't like trying to isolate on this flop. I like calling with good odds and hoping the other two players call getting better odds. If remaining player has a set or straight he is going to reraise anyway.