I had only just sat down and had 4 hands on this guy. His line was really weird - donking flop, checking turn, and potting river. My hand seems face up in this spot after checking back turn,
but I can't put villian on many bluffs on this river. I almost never see pot sized bets as bluffs (especially after turn checks) so I tend to exploitatively over-fold. Not too sure about this spot though.
Any help would be great!

Also, this is my first hand history post here so if I did anything wrong just let me know.

Turn seems weak imo, you've opened yourself up to a bluff otr. Take villain's perspective - you never check that turn if you have an ace so he feels fine leading otr knowing that you'll fold.

Given what we did up to the turn, I say we bet the turn. If villain raises, I think we have to fold. Otherwise a fold/check on the river depending on villain's move.

I think it's fine. Obviously we hate a fold in this spot. First hand I will let him have it

Thanks for the input.

On the turn, would I never be checking back weak Ax hands? Surely I'm not trying to stack off in that spot. And putting in a bet there seems a little bit thin. That is certainly a line I hadn't considered though.

Great river. Shrugcalling pretty quickly readless. Villain is obviously a fish.

meh, imo its pretty close, but my experience makes me lean towards a fold. Yes we have a strong hand absolute hand strenght wise and villain is fish, but we cant yet assume he is just clicking buttons here. Watching this guys past hand histories from the replayer might be of some help in this situation.

Villain donking this flop isn't proof enough to you that he's clicking buttons?

nope. I dont think its right to assume in a vacuum that he is mergedonking or randomly donking out air here most of time, but instead something he thinks is value. This is purely my vacuum assumption on how cash fish generally play in this spot, they tend to be more passive overall and some even understand subconsciously that they should approach this A high board rather carefully. Then again as i said since the A paired its pretty hard to fold such a strong (absolute) hand and i dont mind calling. Vs a random fish u shouldnt be losing or making alot of money either way, regardless of which decision u choose.

So you think villain is only donking the flop with 2p+?

Lot of Ax here that play the same way imho. I'd honestly worry more about the bet if the river wasn't an A (still calling obv).

Edit: Jfc I have to read hh better thought we had Ak

nah, i should have mentioned that in my assumptions kickers really dont matter to fish (esp. if they are between say K and T) and therefore any ace is good. Im not that good of explaining this, but the main assumption is if fish has an ace in this spot he is not worrying anymore about hero. This seems really vague prolly.

Alright so it seems like it was a pretty breakeven spot. The only two points I would like to add are that I often see fish donking with top pair (which used to really throw me off) and I VERY often see them checking turns to induce and then firing river full pot to make up for lost value. It was for those reasons that I found a fold here.

Appreciate the help!

Why not raise the flop to find out where your at? If he's donking with air he folds if not he calls, doesn't have to be a huge raise.

Raising the flop would only get better hands to call and worse hands to fold.

Suppose I did raise the flop, I would be checking back every turn besides a king and put into a similar spot on the river. Except in this situation I would have bloated the pot a bit more.

Yes only better hands call but the difference is only $12 and for that price you find out where your at and prevent the tough spot on the river

It's pretty much never a good idea to raise solely for information/to make decisions easier.

Why not? What would we be trying to accomplish if we called flop and bet turn with an ace? I don't think much worse calls from the average player and this board is drier than the Sahara. On the other hand, checking the ace back protects you and is a fairly safe play that can gain you an extra bet later, so actually my thoughts are more along the lines of why would villain bomb this river when our line reps an ace quite well?

Readless I think I'd fold here because this looks super polarized (like, boat or complete crap) and in my experience people are rarely balanced here.

Not if he's doing it with a set. That would be pretty smart IMO, especially if villain thinks he can get alot of air to raise or float. Sets up a nice turn checkraise that would probably have Hero saying WTF with his aces and wanting to die with his floats. Granted, these two have no history, but if you're villain and have a big hand here, what better way to get to know someone than to try and build a pot?

Even if villain is fishy, that doesn't mean he can't mindlessly lead aces on the flop and then check the turn, especially his weaker aces. Adding any aces at all to villain's range doesn't help Hero at all. In fact, Hero beats nothing but a stone cold bluff on the river (aside from a fish overvaluing something weird like 77) and at the end of the day I don't believe that an unknown is ever betting an unexploitable range here. You are not good here anywhere near often enough IMO.

Thank you for the elaborate response. I agree 100%. I am just not seeing balance in these spots enough of the time.