this is at a home game 1/2 nl
game is super loose passive

stacks
hero 250
villain 200
most ppl 100-220

villain raises to 12 in EP, this is the standard raise
villains raising range is fairly wide (broadways, AXs, A10+, pp)
5 callers
hero is on the Btn with AQo
so the dilema is do we squeeze for value here?? but the thing is, you'll get probably 1-2 callers if you do decide to raise, and after they see a flop we are pot commited on any flop
and if we just call, we'll play a super inflated pot if we hit an A or a Q
with SPR being around 1-3

or should we just shove preflop and closes most action?

That is an insanely wide UTG range. If you're going to do anything it should be a shove. I don't hate it with all the dead money. I might run the stove numbers on these spots. Typically if UTG calls you he's got AK or JJ+. What I find is that one of the other callers usually has some crap like 99 and may look you up, which is fine because of all the dead $$$$.

i think this is really bad advice and shoving=only getting called by hands that crush us.

I think we can value raise to 45 and get called by dominated hands and stack them once it comes qxx and they hold kqs which people arent gonna throw away for 45 bucks usually. raising to 45 also allows us to fold if one of the bigger stack 100bb+ overshoves (assuming they are nitty).

I think we can get called by some big hands that we're flipping with (such as JJ/TT and other middling pairs) which is fine with the dead money. But yes, if we're called then we're probably not in great shape. But how do we factor in the large percentage of times where no one calls and we win 36 BB uncontested?

The pot is $72 when it gets to us preflop; is it standard to 3bet only a little over 1/2 the size of the pot?

GhasnoideawhattodoonthishandG

i can tell you right now that open jamming 125bbs over a 6x raise with AQo is not going to net you the most EV

Given utg's opening range this is a 3bet to $60 all day.

raising to 45 just juicen the pots and asks all of these loose passives to call
therefore even if an a or q hits, we might not be in good condition
even though we are pot commited 100% for sure

as for shoving, these are really bad players, they might even call shove with dominated hands like kq, kj, Ax, sometimes low pp, mid pp, and of course 10+

the thing with all this is, it's ultra high variance
i went along and decided to play for lower variance and just wait for these spots with aa,kk,qq, etc.
probably a -ev in the long term

If you're better than your opponents, then flat and take advantage of hand-reading and position. If you're worse than your opponents, 3-bet to 80 and jam any flop.

tricky spot. i think your move is going to be predicated on how tight/loose your image is here. if you have a solid image i think raising is your best move, but the downside to that is it looks like this table is sticky and won't just give up hands easy meaning you could pick up a couple callers or more and find yourself in bad spots postflop. if you flat call you're giving anyone with a pp odds to hit their set. i think i like a call here with all this money in, but i'm not in love with my hand and can let it go unless i hit the flop pretty hard. i'd be looking for two pair, broadway flops or a Q on a dry board. as long as you can drop your hand on wet boards and have the guts to fire big when it does hit you, i think you're making money over the long run. the raise to $60 could put you in tough spots where a guy with $120 left decides to shove and now you're left flipping for over half your stack when you had pretty good odds to see a flop without the raise. maybe someone could help me out here because i've found myself in similar situations before and i don't know if flatting is the best option or not.

at least you have position on everyone, but i'm willing to guess with players like this there's lots of slowplay after the flop, which could end up costing your stack if you flop an ace and had no idea someone is check calling you down with a raggy two pair type hand. i will say i'm not in favor of a shove here with the great odds we get to see a flop.

For me personally, an opportunistic TAG who Lags on occasion, this is exactly what I would do.

Make it any less than 80, the passive people will say "well i am priced in" with my drawing hand and you'll get 4 callers.

I wonder what the minimum hand we need here is? Like with AK I'm pretty happy with getting more chips into the middle with 36 BB worth of dead money lying around. With AQ, not so much (especially since someone else shows up with AK here, like, always, right?) but maybe it's still correct?