Villain ($350) - Not the best player, he is a middle aged Indian who is a computer engineer. We were talking for a while and he is intelligent but he does not have a very sound game. He is a 2/5 reg and he was going back and forth between another reg (big fish) about how he could have any two cards although what I would say is that he is a pretty sloppy loose slightly aggressive player.

Hero (covers) - Villain saw me float a QQx flop with 99 vs a donkey and a tighter player w/ 99 for like a 1/5th PSB and then I turned a boat and stacked the tighter player's KQ. Probably views me as fairly tight.

Villain limps UTG
2 others or so limp
Hero completes in SB with JT
BB checks

Flop is 8TA

Hero...

I don't think this is too interesting yet. I would bet. You can get value out of a lot of draws and bad loose players often call with even a T here. If he raises I could go either way but I think I'm probably okay with flatting.

Yeah I tend to just hate leading out here since an ace likely limped and won't fold so I tend to play these passively OOP. So anyway:

Pot is (~$15)

Hero checks, Villain bets 10, folds to hero who calls

Turn is Tx

Pot is (~$32)
Hero...

I really hate leading here and I really hate check/raising here.

Its true, he will often have an ace. But assuming he is playing a lot of hands he will also often have all sorts of FD/OESD/ gutshots/ pairs+gutshots/etc. You are losing to some of these, but you are beating a whole lot of them and should get value/not give 10 outs a free shot.

Checking is just meh, because he is checking the weaker parts back and drawing for free and you miss value out of a lot of stuff he may have called a bet with.

If you think he has an A a lot of the time why do you hate leading the turn? I think you get nice value out of betting the turn and river.

I don't particularly like C/R because he probably folds most of the aces he could have. But you would be in a relatively interesting situation where you could raise an amount where he would think he had good odds with draws but didn't (you have 2 hearts and would fill up sometimes when he made straights and have him dead to some flush draws). But I think he checks back too often and folds too much to a c/r.

The issue here is getting money into the pot with such as strong hand. So, I think you have to donk half-pot, and rep a flush draw. You have blockers to drawing hands (J and s), so it's fair to assume he's betting an A, and you may get value from a non- river. If he folds, then he was almost definitely folding to a c/r anyway. A c/c, c/c, c line will make it difficult to get value from the river, unless Villain is betting a flush draw and you can bluff-catch. At least with a donk bet, there's the possibility he might raise, which, I assume, is what you want (not much is beating you at this stage apart A10 and unlikely sets). Why do you hate betting turn? Are you just concerned the Villain will fast-fold because your hand becomes too face-up on account of your image?

Lead flop. As played donk turn, he's a fish, he saw you float the 9's, hopefully he rr.

Bet bet bet flop, for value. Even if he has an ace you have more than 50% equity. You're a favorite against any ten. Good spot to be aggressive.

Betting flop every time
betting turn every time.

I'm hoping that someone has an A here and won't fold.
"oh if he had a good ace he would have raised before the flop. My A9 is probably good here"

I don't think you are going to make a whole lot here, but keep betting your hand for sure.

hero leads for 20
Villain raises to 60
Hero...

Again he is probably thinking "If he had a good hand he'd raise pre" so he's raising to get you to fold. His range consists mostly of air imo, and some weak aces, sometimes a ten but we're only worried about KT QT (Does he bet mp when checked to in limped pots?)
With him being sloppy loose and aggressive I think a call here is good then either another c/c if unimproved c/r if improved to flush or boat.

grunch...

I think you just have to play the odds the pot/implieds lay you here. Leading it pretty icky because AX limps all the time and KXs is calling you, too. C/r doesn't feel right, as I don't think you have much FE in a 4-5way pot. It's just not a very strong flop for you, even though you have lots of outs. Time to figure if you get paid by calling a psb on the flop here.

One advantage to checking, though, is picking up all the players that DO call if UTG fires a bet.

This doesn't make a whole lot of sense, if he has an ace you have a whole lot of equity. If he has KhXh you have somewhere between good and great equity. Checking and potentially allowing a turn to come out that will often halve your equity and the times it doesn't often reduce the range you are getting value from is no good.

Of course its a strong flop. I would be surprised if you had less than 65% equity against a reasonable flop calling range.

The issue with him having an ace is that you have a whole lot of equity for 2 streets HU, but you might make more money if you check/call instead of lets say bet/he raises and blows out dead money behind you.

I mean betting here isn't bad but a pair with a FD isn't the nuts and you aren't drawing to the nuts. I'd be much more inclined to bet KQhh here than JThh but that could be a leak.

We just need to re-read the COTM thread on big draws for how to play this hand in a typically passive game of nut chasers. This spot is a little too strong to fold, but way too weak to lead out or c/r.