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1-2-(5s) Live. Villian is a very bad lag who I have never seen leave with money. He thinks that I am a similar player to him because some clueless regulars talked for 30 minutes about how him+me = psycho game.

Villian is UTG, and I am in the Straddle. Effective stacks are 400

Villian limps, as do 3 others, I check QhTh. (pot 25 dollars)

we flop a flush draw on
Ks 3h 4h

I check, villian bets 25 into 25 quickly, everyone else folds and it is on me.

Out of position, vs full pot bet, thinking we have 9 or less outs, versus a bad lag, my initial thought was to just fold. Half of me thinks that he bets a wide range so I can fold out tones of hands that are ahead of me, but at the same time, the quick full pot bet in a limped pot 5 ways makes me think he has Kx 90% of the time, and I am expecting to get 3 bet shoved on fairly deep. However, since I think he is K heavy, and he is a bad player, I think he will still call 2 bets if a heart falls, so I elect to call.

Turn: Ks 2h 3h Jc ($75) ($350 left each)
I check, he bets 50 into 75.

I want to raise the turn here, but I feel that if he has any clue, he will ship any Kx vs me and I'll be getting it in very average in a huge pot. He surely expects me to raise any value hands on the flop and can only really have J2/J3 that peeled the flop (something I would never do, but he may think I would)

River: Ac. ($175)

Lead or check raise? I can rep missed hearts and get called lightly. Or pray he value bets 2 pair on river? As well.. KK/AA/AK are all in his range as it is common to see people limp those hands utg in strattled pots in this game, especially with the current agro players at the table.

honestly i would bet 1/2 pot or a little more as value bet also to rep a missed draw/bluff/weakness pray he raises your bet/jam and a call would still be ideal to get some $ out of him. When checking i feel like it allows him to to bet most of the time, but there are times where hes holding a weak king or just realize his king is next to no good and checks behind for a free showdown. honestly if hes holding any two pair hes gonna reraise you anyway most of the time so youre trying to get a weak king to call.

You have the villain thinking quite a bit about your hand and your ranges.

Does a "bad lag" really think this deeply about what you're doing? Bad Lags mostly think "oh, he show weakness, I BET! Or, wow, I actually have a hand this time so I SLOW PLAY like a boss."

Be careful that you're not out-leveling yourself by expecting your villain(s) to be thinking much deeper than they actually are.

edit: you're not raising QThh out of the straddle?

edit: you're not raising QThh out of the straddle?

Not when I am playing in my home city where I have a very LAG image. Even if I raise from 5 to 50, there is a very good chance that it goes 5 way 250 dollar pot.

This is a very fringe hand for me, Id gladly pump AT, KQ, KJ, AJ, as you get limp/called by so many hands I dominate, but I find that QT, QJ, JT are too marginal when I cannot get people to fold

Personally I'm not a fan of straddling. I only do it sometimes when I'm at a "fun" table full of drunks and everyone agrees to straddle for an orbit. Otherwise you're sticking in a raise in one of the worst positions, and often have a junk hand.

Aside from that I think this river is a 100% bet. Even if the villain is thinking (which he probably isn't) there's no way he's putting you on broadway.
If anything he might think "oh this guy had an A high flush draw and backed into an ace".
I'd lead out 150ish and pray he raises so I can ship.