We're sitting in a 2-day MTT towards the end of day 1 (still a bit from the money, so no bubble play yet evident) at a 7 handed table. Button ante is in play.

Hero is on the Button and looks down at 88 with 21BB left. Hero currently has a TAG image (though not overly so)

Everyone folds to the CO (a very active LAG who -uncharacteristically- limps in. There had been very little limping in all the hours at the table).
The CO has about 60BB. (SB and BB are TAG and cover both)

Hero decides to raise to 4BB intending to fold to a re-raise by the CO. The limp 'smells weird'. (If CO had opened to standard 3x then Hero had planned to shove, as COs opening range in this spot is extremely wide).
Here, I think, was the first mistake. To get CO to fold any speculative hand the raise should have been bigger. However with a 6BB raise we'd almost be pot comitted.

SB and BB fold and CO calls.
Pot: 10.5 BB

Flop comes
79T

We have ourselves a nice straight-flush draw and a middling pair.

Suddenly the CO leads out for 7BB. What is he betting this with?
A disguised big pair (AA/KK/QQ) with a spade? Or without a spade trying to get a draw to fold?
Suited T9-78 (two pair or pair with OESD)?
A set of 7s?
Ax, Kx of spades?
Complete air hoping we have neither a spade nor a pair nor a draw?

Hands like 2 unpaired Broadway cards seem unlikely as he would probably not have limped these. Nines, tens or JJ similarly.

Suddenly our hand doesn't seem so nice anymore.

Our flush outs are almost certainly no good. If the CO has just a flush draw as part of a big pair - and not a made flush - then we're down to our remaining two eights and 6 straight draws (and 2 straight-flush draws).

• If he has the flush we're likely down to 2 outs or a runner-runner full house
• Against a set or the two pair hands we're about 50/50.
• Against the overpair without a spade we're 60/40 favorite.
• Against a bigger flush draw we're 35/65 underdog.

Shove? Call? Fold?

The CO has to figure we'd shove on many hands with 17BB left. The bet size just screams for a shove by us so I'm thinking the overpair with a spade is most likely.

It just feels wrong to throw away such a beautiful hand. But even with a shove we're giving a high flush draw odds to call.
A call seems not so good because we're then pot comitted anyways. However with little to no fold equity the shove doesn't accomplish much, either.

your getting about 3 to 2 if he calls a shove. so you arent in bad shape money wise.
and he may fold and then it really works well for you to shove.

since you are fairly short going out and leaving your self with 17 bb doesnt do you much good. i vote for shoving and taking the gamble. results isnt important. and no reason to put him on such good starting hands. you would feel like a fool if you folded and he showed a smaller pair and flush draw.

the decision on the flop doesn't really matter - as long as you don't end up folding, there isn't really a wrong way to play a hand like this with this spr. That being said, if you call you are left with less than half pot ott, so shoving makes more sense... aesthetically. Interestingly for hand with such a monster equity, if your opponent checks the flop, you should be checking it back, but that's a different matter.

That being said, you should strongly consider just shoving pre. If you are not a very experienced player (which Im assuming you are not, since you are posting in BQ), you might not have enough edge postflop to make it more +ev than shoving - and shoving is 100% +ev here.

Yes. As noted I was fully set on shoving if the CO had opened to a standard raise pre. The weird limp gave me pause. We had been 6 hours at the table, and the number of limps of all players at the table combined in that entiier time were still in the single digits.

True. At the time I was not considering the smaller pairs that much. But given my tight-ish image he might have speculated that I fold if I'm holding garbage anyhow and he then gets to set-mine against the big stacks in the SB or BB with adequate odds.

The thing is: with a small pair and a bet he'd essentially be trying to get me to fold a missed flop. With my stacksize he must suspect that a fold is unlikely and that a shove is coming. So I would somewhat discount the 'small pair' scenario.
Everything about how he played it (which I totally like) screams: "call me".

I feel if he'd really wanted me to fold he'd have put me all-in instead of betting 7BB on the flop.

does anyone else think this is a shove or limp behind spot pre here? If you were going to shove into a raise, which he'd probably call anyway, why not shove the limp? I get it looks fishy, but do you think he recognized that too, which is why he did it? (was he a decent lag? or a lag fish on a heater?)

If the limp looked that fishy, why not just see a cheap flop? While not in horrible shape with 20 bbs left, I think the best thing you can do is look for good jamming spots and use what you have left to put pressure on similar sized stacks and don't get mixed up with wide big stacks without a strong hand.

I know I kinda contradicted myself, but I could get behind either one. I like the iso raise the least because of V image and H's stack size

Shoving would be my default play, and I think overlimping might be slightly better than raising non all in.

I'm shoving this preflop. saves you from these flops where your in a tough spot.

I had the feeling he was a good player (me being a bad player, obv that doesn't mean much). Very aggressive LAG but very controlled on later streets. Definitely not spewy. He got his stack not through lucky runouts or a plethora of good hands.
If he recognized it he might not care. If he was holding AA he might not want all the tight-ish people left (me, SB and BB) to fold to an open raise by him. Limping makes sure at least someone stays in the pot.

Since we had had absolutely zero limped flops (and zero walks) up until now a raise by the SB or BB was almost guaranteed. (partially also because I had chatted with the SB quite a bit on friendly terms and we were in a sorta fun rivalry over not giving each other any easy situations. I'm pretty sure he would have raised "just because" had I limped. In hindsight that might actually have been a good move because then I could have limp-shoved ...or gone with my 'read' and folded if the CO reraised.).

With 88 I like to get heads up (or take it down preflop)...unless I'm so deep that set-mining is profitable.
Generally I agree. In this particular instance, though, I thought I had a read (I usually don't put much stake in reads).