Punting For Show

At passive tables I think a jam here is quite punty cuz "drawing/flatting/non3betty" hands as strong as AK/QQ can often be in the mix and ain't folding. Also kinda don't think any $200 stack is going to fold anything that just flatted.

GcluelessLLSNLnoobG

Yeah, ran into QQ, everyone else folded. I ended up punting off $400ish, which was all my profit at that point. In game, I just convinced myself I could get through the field and iso the small stack for some really good pot odds against anything. I can't imagine ever sitting there with a shortstack jam, two calls, and just flatting with QQ instead of raising to build a side-pot, but people do it. I thought more likely I'd get called by AK which with all the dead money is a losing gamble, but not horrible and worth the tax to improve my image.

You are following a strategy of generally running over the table. Odds are this was not a QQ that does not know how to raise but a QQ that realized if they gave you the rope you would hang yourself.

I realize the combo is trash, but it isn't like a spot where there is ~$170 of dead money versus a $42 all-in is going to come up very often so I don't really have the luxury of picking my combos. And if I'm not going to have it, the kid to my right having it is the second best place at the table.

Calling is obviously out of the question because my hand is terrible and utterly unplayable post flop. So it was fold or jam in my eyes, and I guess I got a bit greedy. Versus kid I only need 15% equity ($37 to win ~$250) I have somewhere around 25-30% depending on how wide he is jamming and I think he's jamming quite wide in this spot. But I think the jam has to work something like 90% of the time to be +EV that might be a bit optimistic.

Total spew and not a good way to celebrate being recently single.

Consider you one of the better posters.
But we all make mistakes and this was clearly a mistake. You hypnotized yourself into a move where there was none. The button can be intoxicating.

V with QQ had a jam and two flatters ahead of him, and I had not taken any action at all. I could see the original limp looking to target me with a backjam, but once other have already put in a lot more money is he flatting in the hopes that the one person at the table who hasn't acted is not going to put in a raise?

Yeah, I get targeted by the old limp/raise frequently, but usually AA/KK and a lot of these players will limp/call JJ/QQ/AK and instafold post flop if overs or they miss I think that's what his plan was. But when I jam, now he has to call or fold and QQ is just too strong to fold. I think the combos I run into that play this way are TT-QQ + AK. And I think the player's general plan is to flat and play fit or fold. Say if I did something silly like raise to $100, I think V flats a third time, he doesn't jam.

I think this is 100-percent the wrong way to think about this spot.

The reality is that you get spots like this ALL THE TIME at live low stakes. How about when UTG opens $15, there are five calls, and you are in the SB? You are getting a million-to-one on a call, and can squeeze and take down $90+ in dead money a fair amount of the time. Are you supposed to go crazy with any two??

The answer is no. Players play preflop so badly at this stake. There is always dead money and good pot odds, but the way to win is to consistently show up in big pots with better hands and punish the loose-passives that flat with garbage and raise-call with dominated hands.

I am honestly more surprised by the number of folds than at running into QQ. In my experience, fish with 100bb or less are just getting it all in the middle once they've decided they like their hand enough to call off a shove like that. The number of times I re-shove with an ultra-premium hand and get called by all sorts of garbage (any pair, almost any two Broadway cards...) is really high. Like do people really call the short-stack shove with JTs, 44, KQo, whatever and then just fold? The mentality is "my hand is good enough to be all-in, but it would be nice to cut the risk and just check it down for the short stack".

You need more equity to make a play like this. You might be able to convince me it's +EV with a hand as weak as JTs or something like that if the players are as predictable as you say, but you were way too confident in your read that everyone would fold. Even if you had been correct that everyone was capped, someone might make a F-it call with something as weak as pocket 4s or something and you're still crushed.

Plus the other key point is that you know you have to win the hand to get the pot with one player already all in. You can raise far wider when there's a chance everyone folds and you take the pot down uncontested. In this case though even if you had true fold equity T2 is just too weak.

Yes he is flatting believing you will put in the raise assuming he understands your play. You think V was a weak fool that got lucky. I think V understood your play and character and outplayed you. He believed based on your described play you would do what you did. He was right. He believed that he would have a higher ev by creating a situation where a highly aggressive player would do what you in fact did do. Live poker is exploitive. I believe he knowingly exploited your tendencies with his call.