kris_p_lin8a

$2/$5 live
Effective stacks: $700.
Game is trending towards loose / passive with the table having agreed to a $10 straddle which has been running for a few orbits. Not a lot of limping pre-flop, but lots of single raised, multi way pots going to showdown.

$10 straddle is on, action folds to the Button who makes it $35 to go. Button is a solid but creative regular, and I assign him a fairly wide button opening range here. For example, Ax, 2 broadway cards, 22+, 76s+, J9+... somewhere around 30-40% of hands.

Hero is next to act in the SB and looks at 5h5d. Neither the BB or Straddle had been very aggressive preflop, and Hero did not expect them to raise. Hero elects to call, expecting the others to come along so that Hero can set mine or consider making a play for the pot against a wide Button opening range. SB folds, Straddler calls. Straddler is an ABC player that had been calling a lot of raises pre-flop, so I expect his range to be wide, but not quite any two cards getting 3:1 on his call here. 3 players to the flop with $110 in the pot.

Flop: K 4 7 rainbow

This is a pretty dry flop. Both Villains have Kings or pocket pairs higher than 5s in their ranges, but I'm not sure they have any more than Hero in the SB. Hero expects Button to make a c-bet on this board texture with high frequency, and so Hero elects to check planning to float one street if bet, then consider making a play for the pot on the turn. Somewhat surprisingly, both Straddler and Button check it through.

Turn: 6 rainbow

We pick up an open ended straight draw on the turn with no backdoor flushes possible, so we gain some equity in addition to our pocket pair. We block other straight draws (A5, 56) and 58 or 35 would be unlikely even for the Straddler, so Hero believes the straight draw is live. However, our set outs are devalued as that would put a 4-straight on the board (either killing action or potentially giving us 2nd best hand). After the flop checked through, Hero does not expect Button to have a King here - I think the Button would opt to c-bet most of his Kings on this dry flop instead of pot control with 2 other players. For these reasons, Hero decides to lead $55 into $110 pot, expecting to take it down a reasonable percentage of the time. In hindsight, this half pot bet seems small but at the time I thought it was enough to get the job done. Also somewhat surprisingly, both Straddler and Button call the $55 bet pretty quickly, making the pot $275 and still 3 handed going to the river.

River: offsuit 2

About the biggest brick in the deck comes on the river. This is where I feel I got lost in the hand since I really wasn't expecting both players to call my turn bet. I think the turn overcall from the Button weighted his range towards AQ/AJ/AT type hands, or potentially Kx hands that were pot controlling, but at this point I was unsure of what the Straddler could have. A weaker King or second pair / pocket pair that did not want to bet the flop or raise the turn with the Button left to act behind seemed most likely. At this point I do not think 5s are likely to be the best hand and need to decide if I continue with a river barrel. At the time, I had trouble placing both opponents on hand that would fold this river after calling the turn, and so opted to check. This is where I feel the most unsure of my decision -- is this a good spot to continue? Should I have avoided leading into 2 opponents out of position with a weak draw on the turn?

Results:
As played, the river checked through. The Straddler turned over 9c9s and the Button mucked.

Would appreciate feedback on thought process / all streets.