TightlyWound said
That is honestly something I struggle with on occasion.  Do you always base your preflop raises on the size of the pot in these spots?  I think it was ingrained in me long ago that I should keep my sizing the same. I know some of my friends are much more inclined to base their raises based on both position and limpers.  I have been mixing it up a bit the past year or so and that is why I went with close to 3x here but I think my sizing is often too small.  Honestly I wanted to bump it 4-5x due to the limpers, but I also didn’t want to feel like I was playing my hand face up.  Any advice you have on how to effectively vary my sizing would be appreciated.  

I think the only thing that shouldn’t be a substantial factor in your sizing (unless you’re playing against opponents who pay no attention at all, and even then it’s debatable) is the hand you hold. Outside of that, things like position, stack sizes, previous limpers, reads on players left to act behind, game situation and ICM factors can all influence raise sizings.

The primary things to bear in mind are previous limpers (since it changes the size of the pot you’re raising into), and stack sizes. The deeper you are, the bigger you’ll need to raise preflop in order to have some chance of getting stacks in at some point – there’s no reason to minraise at 500bb stacks, for example. Similarly, if you decide to 3x at 25bb stacks, you greatly reduce your room to maneuver after raising.

In this spot, 4-5x would have been fine. Why did you think that would have been playing your hand face-up? They’re not just going to instantly put you on AA as soon as you make it 4.5x here.

Postflop, calling it off on the turn or not depends entirely on the range you assign to the villain – what hands are you beating? What hands are you behind? Work through which hands might make sense in this spot and you’ll find it easier to come to a decision.

TightlyWound said
Thanks for the advice and I will heed it going forward.  I guess part of it is based on the crazy stuff I see players do at times with these monster holdings.  It is more prevalent in the 1/2 games I occasionally play where guys will open for $17 into an unraised pot.  Of course 8.5x is a lot different than 4.5-5x with a couple of limpers acting before it gets to me.

Post flop I tanked for quite a while.  The board seemed pretty static, and if he had flopped a set I couldn’t see him flatting there and then jamming the turn being as deep as we were.  However, he was such a bad player that I couldn’t imagine he didn’t have my aces beat.  Eventually I convinced myself into a call and he turned over pocket sixes.  

Nitpicking a little, but J936 isn’t particularly static as a board texture, even if it’s rainbow. Any A, K or Q is an overcard, and literally any card K or lower that doesn’t pair the board can complete a straight.

It’s hard for a board to be particularly static if it’s not A or K high, just because the lower the top card is, the more likely the cards will be connected in some way. I would class J936 rainbow as fairly neutral – around a 5/10 or 6/10 on a scale with 10 being the most dynamic.