A9 on T87, HU and OOP

Straddling is -EV but great for the game, so I wouldn't do it but you keep up the good work.

I'm pretty sure I'm not ISOing light enough in the BB, but A9o+ can't be good. Maybe if you're waiving your option w ATo/AJo, you can ISO a polar range that includes some junkier aces, but IDK tbh.

According to my sims of these spots, flop can be a range bet for 1/3p, but again I think that's because I'm not ISOing light enough. This is a board you might have to check a lot if you're raising hands like A9o. This hand is at least a candidate to bet a lot regardless. Probably not going any larger than 40%p.

little too light. A9s I could see. Check flop planning a x/r bomb at NL but I hate limit so idk. Also maybe we're not deep enough.

RESULT: I settled on checking range here. Villain bets $40. I check-raise MAX to $140, he tanks for a bit—it’s obviously an effective jam—and decides to go with it, “reshoving” to $171. I call. He has KT and I don’t improve.

I think with the $75 overlay here I should. Every 9 (including J9), every Ten, every overpair, and every set/two-pair.

PRE - In most low-stakes games, especially with a lot of short stacks on the table, I tend not to straddle very much. I'll do it more when stacks get bigger, or when I've noticed my UTG raises are getting multiple callers, but no one is 3B'ing.

My thinking is that I don't mind giving up some EV in exchange for the opportunity to close the action or put in a raise or 3B to ISO a bunch of dead money pre-flop. It turns a situation where we get punished for opening UTG to we get rewarded for punishing the limpers.

I don't really like straddling here, where the effective stack is only $200.

Without reading any comments yet, I'm expecting people to poo-poo your raise with A9o. Yeah, it's a little ambitious, but I don't hate it when everyone and their mother is limping in, and we'll be OOP post-flop and playing "any two cards" bingo.

I do hate the size though. Why $29? There's $27 in dead money out there. I'd probably make it $40. If we get called and are HU, the pot will be around $100 on the flop, with less than 2 SPR. If we make it $40, we shouldn't be getting many, if any calls. Like what range limps for $4, then calls off a raise to $40?

FLOP - This board probably hits a lot of late position limp-calling raises, but when he just limp-calls, I tend to think he's not going to have many, if any sets, whereas we could have all the 2P+. So he can have some 2P, and some straights, but otherwise, he'll have a lot of 1P or perhaps some worse draws that will pure call a small bet, and a lot of air that will pure fold.

So I think with one over, the OESD, and a blocker to one of the BDFD's, c-betting here can't be terrible. Even if we c-bet small and he raises, unless he raises huge, or jams, we probably have enough equity to continue. We could down-bet to $20, or even $15. If he wants to jam $170 into $90, let him. It's an easy fold.

Otherwise, if we bet $15 and he raises to $45, he'll only have $125 behind, with $175 in the pot. We can jam to make sure we see two cards, or call and fold turn on a brick, or just fold and let him have our $44. If we'll make our hand around 1/3 of the time when we 3B-jam, or if he ever folds 1P, it doesn't seem like we can make too big a mistake no matter what we do in that scenario.

I don't mind checking though, given his stack depth and the SPR. If we check, he might bet for value or bluff, and we can just call, so long as he doesn't bet more than 2/3 pot.

ETA - As I was typing I forgot it was spread limit, so he can't jam over a bet. But if we bet $15 or $20, and he raises to $115-$120, we can obviously jam or fold rather than flat call. If we bet and he only raises to $45-$50, then we can fold or jam, or just flat call and see the turn.

I'm not sure, but reading your other threads, I sort of get the sense that most players in these games aren't looking to get stacks in on the flop, with any holding that isn't nutted, and therefore he wouldn't be likely to raise 2P when we can have sets and some straights, and isn't likely to raise as a bluff when he can just call and see what we do on the turn.