Thoughts on opponents range?

The minute your raise UTG w/ 56 and hit trips, you should not consider folding w/ <100bb. Putting him on a range is useless. Just call and reload if he has a better 5 or 34 or AA (LOL).

Also, what position is straddle? (Not that it changes my mind.)

Opening 56cc utg is very speculative, I'd only do it deepstacks with lots of passive players at the table.

Flop bet is very big on this board texture, I'd keep it small(1/3) try to keep opponent ranges wider.

Villain has some boats(22,A5s), 5x and maybe even 34.

Hero only has a pure bluff catcher. Well we also beat 54. We chop with 56.

We are also near the top of our range. I guess click call and move on.
But, folding seems ok since villain repping nutted hands only.

His range calling on the straddle will be wide obviously.

The flop is kind of a red flag. You might be betting anything otf. But when the SB calls, he should be a little scared. I don't think he should really have a lot of floats and even something like 88 has to be pessimistic.

The ace hits the turn. If you had been bluffing the flop you now often have top pair. You have bet again into 2 people. It would be really odd for him to turn a pp into a bluff here. If he had A3 with a bdfd he can only have turned a pair + gutter.

It's very hard to think of bluffs. 1 combo of 64s that shouldn't be there?

I don't mind a fold. It's interesting to think about trying vs rec. A rec might have every 34. A tryer might have only suited or not even that. A rec should more often have like, T5s.

But then a rec is more likely to have made some weird float or be doing something else irrational, like calling with any wheel draw and jamming here for no reason.

You're going to be live most of the time you are beat, and chop pretty often with like 75. And it is live low stakes. While guys looking at strat or talking about it at the table can be a valuable tell, some are still making terrible plays. In game, I'd very likely call but not love it at all.

Somewhat deeper, I think you might just have to fold. Maybe V is supposed to sometimes bluff 77 or 88 here in theory. Idk. Would be an insane play, rarely seen IRL.

I dig the cheekiness of raising 65s UTG, but doing it when you're only 60BB deep is no bueno.

This question may annoy some people. It is a serious one which may affect later decision making. Is the Hero 150BB deep since this is a 1/2 game, or is Hero 60BB deep since the 5 straddle on?
does it matter?

Agreed. It's just another blind. Though it does make me wonder why so many players like making their 200 bb game, an 80 bb game. Though if they're not experienced or comfy at deeper-stacked, that makes sense.

Where it may change things is that a lot of players feel more comfortable limping straddles than limping bbs. So pots then aren't as big as you'd expect, e.g., six-way at 60 bb. They're missing a geometric step and SPR is greater.

They aren't thinking about it in terms of bb -- they are usually just gambling trying to make bigger pots in hopes they hit something -- at least that's the mentality of the guys I play with who straddle regularly.

They straddle $10/$15, the entire loose/passive table calls, they raise/shove a good hand or limp along with ATC and pray 😉

Grunch:

PRE - I think I may be one of the most LAG players here, and even I'm not opening 65s to 7.5bb from UTG. The fact that you got not one but two callers, both OOP, makes me think this is a fantastic game.

FLOP - I'm not certain, but I think if we bet on these low-paired boards, we're supposed to go big, to target all their middling over-pairs to the board.

I don't know how big you can go, but since you went just over 1/2 pot vs two opponents, when we might otherwise just bet 1/3 pot, it seems okay.

TURN - the ace is so good for us as the PFR, I think we're supposed to size down, to 1/2 pot, so your bet size seems correct. When V check-jams, it seems like a pretty trivial call. He could have A2, or some sort of combo draw, or occasionally worse trips.

If he has 22, 43, A5, or 52, or better trips, there's not much you can do about it. We're only drawing dead vs A5.

I'd think 43s would at least consider check-raising flop when BB calls. For that matter, I'd think A5 and 52 x/r flop at some frequency, and A5s can 3B pre at some frequency. 52 and 43 are often folded pre.

There just aren't that many combos of better hands he can have here, when we know where 3/4 of the 5's are.

He could be making this play because he thinks you're a fish who c-bets the flop too much with hands like AK. So he flats the flop with 54, or 53, or A2, and now thinks he's trapped you and your AK, and you can't get away.

Or maybe he has 66-99 that he's turning into a bluff, because he thinks you'd bet the turn larger with AX, or he just thinks he can make you fold AX by repping a slow-played monster, because he's in the straddle and can have any two cards.

Maybe he just has a flush draw or some AX combo that sort of blocks your trips, like A6 or A4 (blocking 65 and 54), and he thinks he's being clever. A4 has the ISSD as back-up equity.

When we raise pre, c-bet relatively big on the flop, and then relatively small on the turn, we're inducing opponents to raise, because our line looks weak / bluffy. It looks like we had an over-pair to the board that hates seeing the ace, but doesn't want to check-back turn because we're scared of looking scared.

If I was V, I'd be very tempted to pounce on this weak-looking turn bet, simply because most low stakes players who c-bet the flop with AK/AQ are going to size up when they hit TP on the turn, but get scared with PP's below the ace.

I shrug call. Never, ever, ever folding here.