Full ring home game down to 5 handed. We don't know much about Villian

Effective stack about 2k 10/20 blinds, 5 ante

We are dealt AhAd at CO, raise to 80

V calls on the button

Flop, Kh Qd 10h

I check, V bets pot 200ish

Turn 6h I check, V bets half pot 300ish

River 7c, I check, V Checks

V shows 6/7 off, no h

Posting this not because of size of pot or that I lost the hand but rather that I was exchanging ideas with a friend and he reasoned that the flop is a must C bet.

I don't like betting this flop OOP because flop just hits his range so hard and we are really in a bad spot facing a raise on the flop since we already block many of his draws. Playing a bloated pot all the way to the river isn't ideal either unless I pick up extra draws.

Also, I believe by betting the flop, his calling range only consists of value hands (many of which we don't beat) and draws. There are not many combos that would call a cbet that we just simply crush. By checking, we can also induce morons betting full pot with 7 high.

So which line is better? Check calling the flop or lead out? If we lead out, what do we do facing a sizable raise against an unknown villain?

You have massive range advantage on this flop.
You and V both have probably equally amount of straights and 2p. But V never has sets(maybe TT if he is passive pre), over pair, and AK.

Given you block Ah, you can comfortably bet fold this flop.

Flop is usually a check/call for me, if you're going to bet, I'd go like 1/3rd pot or so.

I agree completely with your range assessment but this is not a thinking fish. The game I play in is really soft. Most players know the ABC of poker and that is about it. Against these level 1 players, I often do not need to balance ranges because they simply don't play their hands based on opponent's range. I just need to worry about their range while totally ignoring my (just play the hand I have against their range instead of my range vs theirs)

So with that said, my hand here is just AA. What we need to worry about is the range of hands that he bets full pot with. So in essence, when he bets, is AA good here enough of the time? Since this is a question I can't confidently answer, I chose to check/call and keep the pot size in control.

Do you think this reasoning makes sense? Or did I level myself into a -EV play?

Say, you bet 70 into 200 and he raises to 250. What is your preferred line? Thanks

Call

almost always xc this board

Yep standard play very WP

Letting the villain bluff with 7-high is another reason for checking the flop. If you bet, villain only continues with the hand that have good equity vs. you and never folds 2p+. Sorry he sucked out.

Hand is fine

Putting some combos of AA and/or AK into a check/calling range on this flop texture is completely standard.

lets say you know his cards preflop, how would you play it postflop to maximize value? I'd probably take the same exact line you did (maybe might open fold faceup river but that is besides point).

in live poker, where exploit style is much more important than gto approach, you have basically played it perfect.

should also avoid posting results in future to avoid bias.

nh