Hi all, this is my first time posting so please let me know if I should be describing my hands in a better way. A nearly identical situation came up on back to back nights at my local casino except my holdings were different. The game is $1-3 and plays loose. As an example a $15 open can expect 2+ callers on almost any hand.... sometimes 4 or 5 callers... In both hands action went as follows:
Hero is in big blind with $150 stack. All players cover this.
Utg raises to $17 and three callers.
Hero's hand is AQ offsuit first time and TT second time... hero's move?

For what it is worth I jammed all in both times. First time around UTG folded and I got snap called by one of the $20 callers who was slow playing AA. Second time I got snap called by UTG who had AQ, and I lost a race. Thoughts about my play? Is a raise to $50-60 better preflop? I'll be out of position in both cases. Also I've heard that if you are raising more than 1/3 of your stack preflop it's better to just shove. Any help would be appreciated!

I would point out to the fact that you are 50BBs deep in a game that goes fast and that is restricting the hands you play and how you play them. You might be thinking that you are lowering volatility by buying in cheap but I don't think you are.

If you want to play short stack poker, I would argue you should buy in for 100. If you want to play all streets, I suggest you buy in for 300 or so.

Fair point. I did actually buy in for $100 in both cases and had chipped up a bit... hence the $150 stack.

I think they are both borderline cases and mostly dependent on how loosely UTG raises (and sometimes dependent on who is calling, especially the first caller).

Gtoughspots,imoG

For shoving TT is better then AQ. AQ is unprofitable against AK, one of the hands that is likely to call a shove. Both are in the marginal zone where it depends on players but TT usually falls in favor of shoving and AQ may or may not.

In either case variance will be high because the most profitable situations for both hands is everybody else folds preflop.

Honestly, both are folds pf for a new player with only 50 bb and buying in for 33 bb.

When you get to the point you can start guessing a range for the villains, you can go back to deciding whether to jam or not.

Well played. Your on the poor end of variance. Sucks it is UTG open. But as you can see. We where in good shape both times vs UTG open.

If you run EV calcs. They will be marginal winners vs standard calling range. But our EV comes from times we are not contested. Which should be at minimum 20%.

Super quick rough estimate. Is $12 EV when called and $13 when we generate folds.

So EV is around $25 for the shove.

Obviously if you think we can generate more fold equity (I do) then EV goes up.

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate all the input!

The only thing I would add to your hand histories is a description of the villain and what you think his opening range might be like. Is he raising a lot of the time, not very much, or you don’t have a big sample. If you don’t have a sample is he a drinking 25 year old there to have a good time or is it a 65 year old guy with headphones and an iPad watching a movie?