Why do you raise flop?
If you're doing it for value why not just shove.
I really do not all these small raises in multiway pots in 30bb-games.

Obviously it's for value. Shoving $400 into a $150 pot with a meh top pair is going to fold out all the hands I want to call a raise with and get snapped off by better hands. I'll get called by many worse hands and have a larger pot to shove into on the turn which will give villains who are behind less horrible odds to call my jam. If I raise flop and get one caller that's a $275 pot which I can jam $325 into on the turn, if I get two callers it only gets better. I was not planning on 4 callers esp from a semi competent player who should know I have a hand here based on the flop action.

Well the guy bet 25 into 100 so I like the raise. I'd go bigger(135) and call anybody's shove except the guy that covers me.

raise seems mandatory...it's a I have a draw and please let me draw for $25 bet. B/c this happens so much at live poker and b/c they don't b/f these hands, you need to raise here...not to mention folding out other hands that have equity is a decent result.

I agree that a raise is best but feel like shoving is way overkill. What I'd like to debate about is what type of turn cards should we barrel on vs what turn cards we should slow down on after everyone and their mother flats our flop raise.

Here's an interesting one. This is 1/2 flex limit. Meaning, the max bet/raise at any time is $100.

Stacks:
Hero: $405
BTN: samish
UTG: covers
BB: $86

Hero is UTG+1 with KQ

UTG limps, Hero limps, no one raises and we end up 7 to the flop.

About pre: In these games, I pretty much always raise KQs here, but (and this is a bad reason) I was up $30 and leaving when I got to BB.

Flop ($14): J87
checks, Hero bets $12, folds, BTN raises to $42, sb folds, BB shoves for $84, UTG snap calls, Hero ????

reads:
BTN: old guy. loose passive. Gets to the turn with every hand he limps with. Donks out with top pair type hands. I won a good sized pot against him and UTG shortly before with KT on a KQxxx board because they both are terrible and BTN donked flop with K9, c/c turn.

BB: old guy. He's been tight. Haven't noticed anything other than the fact I haven't noticed anything.

UTG: middle aged guy, sat not long ago. Is terrible. In above mentioned hand he bluffed the river into two of us for $40 into a $200 pot with his busted fd+oesd. I saw him snap call down a weak Ax where a flush was possible and he should at least have to think about it. Just a guy that doesn't fold TP imo.

Ship it. If you're dead, ul gg.

Not sure if I could stick with the rule of "don't go broke in limped pots" in this spot.

UTG limped aces trying to trap, btn is raising his AJ or set, who cares about BB he's so short...

Never folding the 2nd nuts there and probably doing a little dance before snapping.

With the SF there I think I convince myself that I should fold and kick myself for not raising pre. If you really decided to limp because you wanted to end your session up then I think you should avoid this high variance spot.

It's definitely one of those spots where you just need to go with your guts/reads and not second guess.

i dont think i could fold here if your beat just ul

I was thinking more about the balance of the decision to just call and hope it gets check down (or keep it a little smaller), versus creating a side pot versus UTG (big fish) in case I'm already beat versus half stack?

You should be jamming the flop given the action and that you're still deeper with UTG since UTG's range here is certainly much wider than just AxHH. If he calls your jam then the side pot is going to be larger than the main (so even if you loose the main you'll still make $ off the side pot if you win). The naked Ah is very likely in his range so I'd like him to make the bad call here instead of seeing free cards.

If we just flat there's going to be a lot of turn and river cards that kill our action for the times that we're currently good against UTG. Another heart, the board pairing, etc is all bad for us and makes it less likely that UTG will stack off on those later streets unless he's improved. On the flop there's still quite a few hands he can get it in bad with.

...

Flop ($14): J87
checks, Hero bets $12, folds, BTN raises to $42, sb folds, BB shoves for $84, UTG snap calls, Hero raises to $184, BTN folds, UTG calls quickly.

Turn ($508): K
check, Hero bets $100, UTG calls quickly.

River ($708) A
checks, Hero ???? ($119 left)

Def bet 100.

Absolutely bet the max on the river for value. The naked Axh makes up a a dec portion of his range and he's never folding it IMO.

never fold Ax on the river? really?

Utg is described as "terrible." Hes not going to fold the Ah after he hits top pair. He probably won't think he's good, but he'll be getting 8:1+ on a call. He won't fold there.

He bluffed $40 into a $200 pot. That kinda tells you how he thinks about pot size...not much at all. He thought $40 was a big bet.

Even if you don't believe he'll call another $100 with top pair, there's still a ton of hands that he can still put in more money with on the river while behind. We're only scared of AxHH hands and given his line, it looks extremely unlikely that he has AxHH.

What do you think is best play on the river?

I'm not sure. I actually felt really strongly the way he was putting his money in that the had Ahxo. He wasn't really thinking about it at all. He was checking quickly and calling quickly. So, I really didn't think he had a lower flush.

So, I kinda planned on checking all rivers thinking all most my value was coming versus Ahxo. And then I did that on the river without really thinking when the A rolled off.

can you list the "ton" of hands he can call the river with? I can't figure out a reasonable range that has a "ton" of hands in it.

Why does that rule out a flush to you? Bc he didn't think about raising?

Honestly, it's more of a feeling that I can't explain. It maybe just emotionally driven, and highly inaccurate. But, I think any made hand less than mine has a difficult decision for all but the biggest fish based on the action.

He didn't really seem to care that I was repping the nuts. Just made me think he had Ahx a tonne, and Axhh sometimes. But like CQ mentioned, he doesn't play Axhh this way that often. Flop maybe up until I make it $184, then I expect him to just raise there, or c/r turn mostly.