99 multi-way

raise more pre flop. 35imo

I would bet small on this flop - 25% ish to fold out/deny equity to a load of overcards. Really happy to take this down now but we can also get value from weaker pocket pairs.

Probably bet/folding unless it's to an aggro monkey who is the type to overvalue their mid pair.

I like your pre-flop play, just surprised so many called.

Everyone checked to the raiser, so bet 50
With this kind of board, you should reduce the field. I would be carefully watching each players reaction to the bet. I can find that queen in villain’s eyes.

This is the kind of situation where the old me might pot the flop and lay out maximum pressure. But for those that consider me inflexible, this (1/3 bet-size) is an example of learning from this forum.

Instead of brute force (which does work sometimes) I can likely get some bad calls - instead of only being called by a queen.

Even against a big field (and especially with this paired board) villains miss the flop 68% of the time, we are likely ahead, so let’s see who hangs around

Honestly, I have no idea what the standard open size is in this game, but I'd have thought that $25 would be big enough to keep everyone and their moms from calling. I'm usually the first one to tell people to raise bigger, but I think at a certain point it we may need to consider making an adjustment in a splashy game, like tightening up and raising HUGE.

On the flop, I'd probably bet very small, like $15, or maybe $20. I'd think we'd mostly be betting for equity denial, and maybe a smidge of thin value.

I wouldn't hate on anyone for just checking it back and trying to get to showdown. Unless we boat up, I'd expect to see some sort of action on future streets that will push us to fold.

I somewhat prefer to bet small, just to clean up some equity and possibly buy us a free river card by checking back turn. Probably folding if someone x/r's using a big size. Might continue as a call vs a small x/r.

It's just not a great situation to be in.

SPR's 2, which makes me want to check here. OTOH, doing the math with 5 opponents, none of them have a Q ~60% of the time, which surprised me tbh. H likely has the best hand right this second. I'd thought it'd be 50/50 at best. So betting small to clear out the Ax-Tx we don't want catching up, might be best. As well as looking like a please call me bet, repping the trips we don't have.
Curious what size a solver would pick.

Ofc, 6-ways, anyone with a Q is going to check and see what happens. How short is everyone else?

Pf, a pot-sized raise would be to 28. Accordingly, going to 30-35 would be what I'd do.

This is a Texas card room so preflop raise sizing is skewed. Plenty of times limpers are calling no matter the size, pretty rare a raise pre gets through or is even heads up.

Standard in this game was $12-15 with no straddle. I figured $25 would get one or two callers. But once the SB and BB called all the others just shrugged and figured they were priced in.

In this type of game sometimes I'll raise just enough pre to insure playing for stacks if the situation warrants. Can definitely be a strange dynamic. Was one hand where there was a raise pre to $10 and 8 players saw the flop.

Pre seems fine to me. Room and table dependant of course.
We bet this flop all the time.
Pre flop action suggests we are unlikely to come up against a bigger pp. We are really only worried about the Q.
We are well ahead in terms of ranges, so its time to make a bet.
I would go around 50% pot, nothing crazy.
If we get called though it's time to start thinking about getting to showdown as cheaply possible.

We are in position so can very likely check through the turn, and then we can evaluate the river.

Small bet for equity protection/denial.

The fact is that we are going to hate a large % of the turns. So I think we give up or bet enough to chase all the draws out. I'd lean towards c/f.

I think theory would suggest that if it's a splashy game, we're supposed to tighten up when we VPIP/RFI. I think we're also supposed to raise bigger.

The challenge is that if you're the obvious nit in a splashy game, people tend to notice, so we get no action when we want it, which leads us to start opening our range up a bit, and running into big hands when we're at the bottom of our range. It can be a recipe for wild swings.

When I've played in games like this, I try to make a few adjustments which seem both reasonable and easy enough to implement:

1. Over-fold to 4B/5B's - I don't care how splashy the game is. When the non-pros who open wide and 3B light start putting in 4B's and 5B's, they're generally not doing it light. They spent all night splashing around, building their wild gambly images, so that they can stack a donk when they pick up AA/KK.

2. Flat call rather than 3B with the cuspy hands we'd generally view as automatic 3B's in other games - hands like AQo, AJs, KJs, and 99-JJ become difficult to play post-flop when we're multiway with a low SPR.

3. Go old school, by working in some limp-raises and back-raises with big hands and reasonable bluff candidates - rather than go 4 or 5 ways to the flop by opening those second-tier hands from our usual 3B range, I'll occasionally limp or flat call a raise with them, see what happens, and if someone I know is capable of squeezing light puts in a raise, I'll back-raise huge with a hand that isn't likely to be dominated by their squeezing range.

4. Fast play thick value pre and post - I'm not getting cute or trappy with big PP's pre, or strong but vulnerable hands post. I've got no qualms 3X pot jamming the flop with top set on a super wet and connected board.

5. Don't over-defend your BB's/straddles - it's really tempting to flat call raises with a wide range when we're getting a price. But we're just torching when we call pre / fold flop, or worse, float the flop and then get to the turn or river with top pair, crap kicker, or bottom 2P on a three-smooth / three-flush board. Whatever my usual BB defense range looks like, I try to lop off the bottom 1/3 of it. I want to show up on the flop with a range that can make really strong hands and call big turn bets.

6. 3B polar, not linear - I tend to 3B a range made up of hands that are happy to either call a 4B or wants to 5B, and hands that can easily fold to a 4B. I want hands that can confidently c-bet or check-fold on the flop.

good post. this weirdly reminded me of a post from about 10 years ago from Aesah that was teaching hold em regs how to dip their toes into PLO donkfests. very similar principles

betting big ish is better than checking IMO. We are ahead a lot here and folding out smaller pairs and 6s is more profitable than check/give up

the advantage of the double Q board an us being the pre flop raiser is that villains at this stake are going to play honest. we aren't gonna see too many bluffs as we have more 'good' queens than anyone else from a range perspective. I think we will know if they have a Q by the time we reach the river

Hero bet 100. SB tanked for 2 minutes before shoving for ~225, 3 folds then limper calls the 225 with plenty behind. Hero can't fold fast enough. SB had QJs, limper QTo. Pot was chopped when the board double paired on the river.

Thinking about this hand on the way home I would have bet 50. This should be enough to fold out anything but a Q which was my goal.

I would bet even smaller like 30 to 40. 100 is actually a pretty bad sizing and large mistake given the stakes too (it's a decent amount of big blinds) I definitely don't think betting big is better than checking like above posters said. But small bet is clearly best.

Gosh what were they doing for 2 minutes in the tank?

Good fold, agree with the crowd here that small bet is best. If no one has a Q you can be called by worse two pair or fold out some 6-out hands that might create a tough decision on future streets.

Even $50 is too much.

When you c-bet a board like this, in a multi-way pot, you're only repping super-strong hands, and none of those would bet much more than 10%-15% pot.

If someone wants to raise as a bluff, let them. Like I said, we can call a small x/r, because we might have the best hand vs their bluffs, and we have a slim chance of boating up and coolering them when they're just raising Qx for value. If they go bananas and raise to the moon, it's an easy fold.

So, if we bet $15, and someone clicks it to $30, even $45, we're getting a good price with the IO's. When Texas Joe jams for $225, it's the easiest fold ever.

If you bet $50, and I was V with Qx, I wouldn't raise. I'd just call. I have no idea what these two wing-nuts were thinking, jamming $225 with QJ and calling with QT. We're never folding AQ/KQ.

I’m sorry, but I can’t see how betting 10% is a remotely valid play. The only time I would even consider that is if I held QQ in this situation.

I think everybody agrees here that the proper play is to bet the minimum amount that folds out everything but a Q. And if anybody calls then we are done putting money in. And 15 will not accomplish that, especially in a Texas card room.

I don't agree. We want calls from 88-22 and 6x here..

I do think a bet larger than 10% is appropriate tho. Bc w $15 you are giving proper odds to hands like AJ and KT to call

The reason we bet small is to make it harder to over-call for each player left to act. If the first opponent calls with AX or 88, or whatever, the next opponent becomes more likely to fold whatever he has that isn't strong.

We're just trying to make anyone fold anything that might catch up. If we can get 2 or 3 of our 5 opponents to fold, that's 2 or 3 fewer ranges we need to be concerned about. And we get an instant increase in equity.

The bigger we bet, the tighter the calling ranges become. Yeah, we're folding out more hands, but we don't gain as much equity versus the hands that don't fold.