[converted_hand][hand_history]Poker Stars, $3.11 Buy-in (10/20 blinds) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 9 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite. View Hand #14850791

CO: 1,400 (70 bb)
BTN: 1,520 (76 bb)
SB: 1,450 (72.5 bb)
Hero (BB): 1,505 (75.3 bb)
UTG+1: 1,650 (82.5 bb)
UTG+2: 1,470 (73.5 bb)
MP1: 1,420 (71 bb)
MP2: 1,505 (75.3 bb)
MP3: 1,580 (79 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with A A
UTG+1 raises to 40, 5 folds, BTN calls 40, SB folds, Hero raises to 100, UTG+1 calls 60, BTN calls 60

Flop: (310) 2 8 4 (3 players)
Hero bets 250

I hadn't played with these players before so only have the first 15 hands or so but UTG+1 was 27/18 and BTN was 45/9

My question is, was my flop bet too big? They've played lots of hands so didn't want a 3 way pot..

Raise bigger pre.

Don't be sad that they folded, you might see the positive side: You offered them good odds pre to setmine and would have donked off your stack if someone actually made a set

But seriously: Raise a lot bigger pre. You want value, go for it.
btw: I also don't understand the connection between "I don't want a 3way pot" and your behaviour: I give them good odds to come along and have stats suggesting that they do.

what is your plan on the flop?

I'd definitely be betting for value and I'm snap calling if one of these guys shoves, but I'd go like 210 or maybe less because we're multiway in a 3 bet pot and we should have no trouble setting up our stack for a shove by the river if that's the line we want to take. We'll be able to have a deeper stack if we think we need to pot control later too. I don't think our sizing is going to have much of an effect on what folds or calls. The main reason I'm calling a shove is that I think they would be more likely to push a draw or an over pair than a set here. Most sets aren't going to get too scared at the sight of 2 diamonds so they'll likely call in stead of shove.

I think we set ourselves up with a bit of an awkward stack size with this sizing. If we get 1 caller we have a 800 chip pot and a 1100 chip stack, and if we get 2 callers we have like a 1000 chip pot and a 1100 stack, so if we want to be aggro on the turn we'll only be able to over bet shove or significantly reduce our bet sizing with respect to the pot. I would try to make that work a little better by making more of a 1/2-2/3 pot bet here and then having a higher stack to pot ratio on future streets.

The raise size pre flop is bad. We need to be going larger here. Pre flop is a spot where we're sure we have the best hand right now and want to get as much money in as we can. We would also be alright with just isolating one of these guys, preferably BTN with his 45% VPIP because if he flops top pair or something we're getting a stack. We're also in a good spot to 3bet bigger because UTG+1 is likely going to want to isolate 1 person with a lot of his range meaning he's likely to 4bet us and stack off pre.

Read dependent, just VPIP/PFR doesn't tell us much about postflop play.
If we had chosen a better size pre (let's say 150) and both villains call (I think that's likely, loose fish don't fold anything they want to play to 150 when they call 100), pot is big enough to somehow get it in on the turn. How we can do this depends on their postflop behaviour. Might even check flop if one or both are super aggro postflop and are going to hang themselves. Normally bet sth. like 2/3 - 3/4 pot.

~139 pre
~239 otf
~jam turns/bet dumb amounts cause that board is so damn dry

I'm curious, what are you trying to achieve with the odd amounts? I never quite understood this.

Odd amounts make people do odd things. More psychological than anything

Reasonable. Thank you much.

I don't buy into the psychology of making odd bet sizes. There's definitely spots where you want to bet something in between bb intervals but I would say that it's more about controlling the pot size and SPR than psychology. This isn't a live game and psychology doesn't play as deeply into the game as much as mathematics. Play the numbers before you think about how someone will level themselves based on your bet size.

I think SkinnyStax is right. Even if the psychological effect is very small, it is existent. After all you don't risk anything when making it 239 instead of 240.
And I don't get your point with the SPR and pot control @emit, you essentially don't change anything in those when betting a few chips more or less.

lol

Laughing is cool, I'd prefer some kind of real answer though.

I'm not trying to hijack this thread with a discussion about how increasing or decreasing your bet sizing by 1 chip may or may not have a psychological effect on your opponent. Just the fact that you can't quantify what kind of an edge that "psychological effect" gives you is enough of a reason not to discuss it further. Not to mention once we become known as the guy who always ends his bet with a 9 our edge is gone and we're just wasting time by manually typing our bets.

My point was that if we're in a situation where we want to be able to size our future bets correctly we need to sometimes choose a bet sizing that is between bb intervals. This pot is not in that category since we're only at bb20, but if we're at something like 25/50 playing 40bb deep we may want to make our bet on the flop like 225 as opposed to 200 or 250 because it sets us up for a better SPR on the turn or river. This should be common knowledge to most players and is much more worthy of your thought than whether or not to end your bet with a 9 to try to level somebody.

Oh Lawd! Yes Massa, let me get right on that Massa!