I'm hoping to get some feedback on a hand I played recently at live $1/$2. I've talked to a few friends about it & they seem split between whether my play was solid or flawed. This is long but I wanted to be thorough; feedback very much appreciated!

BACKGROUND
I'm playing $1/$2 with about $350 in front of me. The game was 9-handed & relatively limp-heavy. Not uncommon to see 3-4 people limp in & call a $12 or $15 raise. I'd been playing generally tight but had opened up in a few spots where I felt I had clear range advantages; I do t think the table realized that, though, as I had only been to showdown once or twice in about 90 minutes.

The villain in the hand had only been at the table for about 45 minutes. In that time he had played a little loose preflop but on the tighter side post-flop. That said, I'd seen him take a slightly unconventional line in a 60bb pot prior to this. At time of this hand, he had about $600 in his stack. On the whole, he seemed like a relatively solid player capable of a few atypical moves.

THE HAND
I'm on the button with Js10s. Villain (UTG) open-limps. UTG+2 & UTG+3 limp as well. I make it $12 to go. The big blind calls, as do all three limpers.

The flop comes 10d-9h-2c. The villain acts first & leads for $20. The limpers fold & I call. The big blind folds as well. I call here for a couple of reasons (flawed thinking?). I felt like a raise would make my hand obvious & perhaps be a bit unbalanced. I thought his leading range would include 10x, straight draws, perhaps a set of 2s. I didn't think he'd limp Q-J preflop, so 7-8 seemed like a more likely draw. I know leading a set here is odd, but 1) I'd seen him lead strong hands before & 2) I think he perceived me to be to be tighter than I am & may have thought he could get early value from an overpair.

The turn makes the board 10d-9h-2c-10h. He leads again for $60 into a pot of $100. I thought for a little while about whether to call or raise. I decided to call; this is the point where I may have made a mistake. My thought process was: his value range here would likely be 10x hands & 2-2. I don't think he would've limp/called a pair of 9s pre-flop. His bluff range seemed to me like 7-8 (probably suited) & maybe Axhh. Only 7-8 seemed like a logical candidate to have lead on both flop & turn. In general, his ranges seemed pretty limited. I thought his 10x hands would be suited 10-8, 10-9, 10-Q, & maybe 10-7. In general, I felt like he most likely had 2-2, 7-8, 10-8, or Q-10. Not sure he leads flop with 10-9.

I decided to call because I felt I was either way ahead or way behind. Obviously 2-2 & Q-10 have me in a bad spot. Yet, I have 7-8 & 10-8 in pretty bad spots as well (since the Jack that 7-8 needs would fill me up). I thought that if I called the turn, he would value bet 10-8 on river & probably bluff a missed draw as well. He struck me as the type of player capable of firing a 3-barrel bluff, especially since I had thought for a while before calling turn. I felt like he might've put me on an overpair that he could either try to move me off of. So, in short, I felt like I extracted the most from worse hands & lost the minimum to better by calling the turn.

The river was 3h, making the board 10d-9h-2c-10h-3h. He thought for about 10 seconds & bet $110 into a pot of $220. I didn't think that this card changed enough about the board/hand ranges to alter my plan to call River on relatively safe cards. It did bring in the backdoor flush, but I felt like there was only one combo of hearts (7h8h) that would play it this way; I though he would be likely to bluff with all combos of 7-8.

Based on my turn thinking, I called. He showed 7h-8h for the flush & took the pot. I would really like feedback on my thought process & play. Thank you very much if you can take the time to do so.

I think your thought process is very good. Your ranging seems spot on in this hand. I think you played it well.

You need to take off the results of the hand. It usually alters advice.

What was your goal when you raised to $12 after 3 limpers?

I think I see what you're getting at here, but my goal was to (hopefully) get at one or two of them to fold. Two of the limpers had been slightly less 'sticky' preflop than others, so I thought there was a decent chance that I could thin the field & play the hand profitably in position against weaker hand ranges.

I'm definitely open to criticism of my thought process & approach.

I don't think I can edit the post at this point :/ I tried to avoid skewing responses by saving the result until the very last paragraph, but I see your point.

I like your though procces and V ranges. I think by calling on the turn you keep V on wider ranges and at this point your trips are nice blef catchers.
If you decide to ship it on the turn you will get called by full houses as well as better 10x and worse 10x. I believe when he calls your shove on the turn - he has more combos that beat you.
In my opinion - well played.

Thank you for the feedback.

I don't think your read of V is as good as you think, it is pretty typical of 1/2 Vs to limp from utg hands they might typically open raise from LP. I can definitely see V limp/calling 99, KQ, JQ, JT, etc... plus a few odd hands like J8 suited. Don't be too quick to give V credit for being better than they are because of a hand or two.....unconventional is usually just a hand that was poorly played yet worked out. This hand is fairly straightforward, yet you have narrowed his range unnecessarily, probably due to being results oriented. What did you think the other limpers had preflop?

You raise some interesting points here. I see your point about $1/2 players often having bizarre limp ranges, but based on what I'd seen of him up that point I didn't have any evidence of him being inclined to limp KQ/99 etc. Your take on the situation is similar to what someone else told me, which is part of why I posted here.

J-8 suited might be a potential hand to include in his ranges, but I wasn't quite as concerned about it due to the Jack in my hand. Maybe a flaw in my thought process. Also not sure if putting J-8 suited in his range is enough to make the turn a raise spot?

Thank you for the feedback; I am looking for thoughts like yours to see if there are holes in my thinking.

My point is that in 45 minutes of play you probably only saw him play 2-3 utg hands and don't really have the ability to assign specific calling/betting ranges yet. Someone else pointed out that the $12 bet you made was really more of a pot sweetener and unlikely to get limpers to fold. Work on that. Also, V plays this hand horribly, limp calling from utg with a low sc. Typical 1-2nl play, but not good. Then donks out, which folded out the limpers, but was obviously aimed at folding out you and taking down the pot. He l/c preflop and then hits yahtzee with T9, 99, or 22 he is NOT donking out the limpers or the pf raiser.

The question of how much to raise preflop was something I was trying to sort out. $20 seemed like too much to raise preflop/seemed like it could invite awkward 3-bet situations from the couple stronger players at the table. Yet, I also didn't want to just limp in behind & concede to the limpers. I'll admit I felt a little stuck, as no option seemed great.

I had seen him hit two pair on a relatively dry board & lead into the preflop raiser, which made me inclined to think might've been doing it in this hand as well with 2-2.

Bumping in hope of getting a few more opinions.

If you were thinking everything you said in your analysis live, in real time while in play, then you're going to be just fine, friend. Let this hand roll off the shoulder.

Only thing wrong in this hh is the amount of words.

If you can post your thought process in spoiler and for hh use template format.

Hand is perfectly played. I go back and forth between $12 and $15 pre. Usually $8+1bb each limper. Post is perfect. Wanting to raise turn is results oriented. You can raise turn with like KT+ bc you stack worse Tx.

Like this

Yes, that looks significantly better & gets to the point. I was just trying to convey everything going through my head at the time, but I can see that it's a bit much to read.

Thank you for the feedback & re-formatting help.

Yeah, preflop kinda gets you in trouble here. Either limp (if you think someone will pay off your nutted hands) or raise bigger. This in between raise neither defines their ranges nor disguises yours.

I also feel that if you do not raise turn, you are essentially committing to fold if a draw comes in (since you aren't charging them anything). I'm not sure you can really raise vs V's range here though. Given your read of a V tighter postflop, I think we can give him credit for a hand here. His betting is consistent with either a set or a big ten. I think we can fold here, if he shows you the draw, we can add that to our read for next time.

I see your point, but $20 preflop seems a little big, & wouldn't it incentivize players to 3-bet me light? Knowing that I'm putting that much in the pot when a certain percentage of those hands are not going to do well calling 3-bets?

And you're saying to fold on the river, right? I'm curious to see what others think of that idea.

Yeah, you can fold the river for sure, you are behind too much of his range now.

I was actually talking about the turn though. Calling allows draws to set their own price, I don't like it. Raising is pretty bad against a tight player's donking and continuing range, I don't like it either. Unless we know draws are a big part of his range here (and I'm not sure we can credit that given the incomplete read we have at this point), folding the turn seems like a viable option.

I don't usually give guys credit for barreling draws until I see it. Of course, he kinda got the nut runout for his actual holding. I wonder if he fires another barrel without the heart OTT?

Anyway, I think the real decision in this hand comes OTT. If you really believe you are ahead a good percentage of the time, then I would stuff it in. Of course, as I said above, I think this is lighting money on fire vs his range, but YMMV. FWIW, I don't think he folds this exact holding when you shove, so there is that.

Oh, and

I think this is an ok hand to call a 3 bet with, unless a rock is 3 betting.

Doing anything but calling turn is pretty bad.

Please don't fold trips to two half pot donks.

River is close but again it's half pot. I expect to get shown a better T more than anything but we need to be good 25% of the time and we have trips vs a flop donk lead.

Yeah, I agree - just don't see how folding on the turn is an optimal play. I agree with you that the river is close & might depend on how willing he is to 3-barrel bluff. I felt like I was going to be good closer to about 50% of the time on the river.

I think both you and Avarita are way too optimistic on the river. I would guess you are good closer to 10% of the time here.

50% is too optimistic sure, 10% is too pessimistic. Like mama Ava used to say, take each side, find the middle position, and there lies the truth.

So yes it is close but it's just gonna be bad practice to fold the near top of your range to half pot bets when faced with this line.

Very much appreciate all of the opinions so far. Given me a lot to think about with the hand.

I'm hoping a few others might be willing to chime in with thoughts as well.