This hand came up in a $5 tournament that my friend played. He was a healthy stack with about 40bbs to start the hand and everyone was about even stacked. New table with no information. I don't have the history, we talked it over, but here's essentially what happened:

Preflop: 9 handed, cutoff opens for 2.5x, button calls, Hero is big blind with A-3o and completes.

Flop (pot 9.5bbs): Ah-10d-7d. Hero (37.5bbs) checks, cutoff checks, button bets 4bbs, hero calls, cutoff calls.
Turn (pot 21.5bbs): 7s Hero checks, cutoff checks, button checks
River (pot 21.5bbs): 3c Hero checks, cutoff checks, button bets 11bbs, hero???

We found this to be a really tricky situation to play. Of course there are other lines but in reviewing this one we both felt calling from the bb is mandatory given our odds, but we are looking for two pair+ getting good odds, not TPNK. When button bets the flop we are faced with a really tough position. Folding top pair to one bet seems really weak, particularly to such a small bet. By the river though the board ran out dry, no flush came, and the pair on the board meant that we were chopping at least some of the bigger aces we were losing to before. We didn't think button had trips as he checked the turn (although some 7s could still be in cutoffs range). The river decision is tough. We are getting a sick price on a board that ran out pretty dry, however button does have a lot of bigger aces in his range and would absolutely value bet them this amount to catch a lower ace. Also we still have to worry at least slightly about cutoff (although I think he's pretty weak or we would have heard from him on the river after button checked the turn). We haven't invested much and still have a healthy stack.

As played, do you call the river?

Just as importantly, is there any alternative line that could've prevented such an awkward spot? We considered a lot of ideas like:

3 betting pre
Donking flop and then giving up to future aggression
Min raising flop and then giving up
Blocker betting river

I'd love to hear your feedback on these alternative lines and any that you can come up with. Thank you!

you would make more money 3b or folding pre

Do you think you're ahead of anything on the river?

A3o plays terrible multiway oop. Good spot for a squeeze.

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk