I’m much more of a hold’em player, so while this spot might seem completely standard, just want to double check.

Game is 5/5 and table has agreed to a mandatory straddle. Table is playing pretty loose pre as usual in this game.
Villains are both aggressive regs, but neither is a maniac.
Hero starts with $2500. Villains cover.

The hand:
Hero has AhAdQc6h on BTN.
UTG limps. HJ $50. CO calls. Hero raises to $215 on BTN.
Folds to HJ who calls, CO thinks a little and calls. Given that I don’t play this game often and I’m not particularly aggressive pre, my hand is probably perceived as AA way more than anything else.

Flop:
966r (no hearts), flopping hero trips.
Checks to hero who pots for $675. Is this good?
HJ folds. CO raises to $1700, committing stacks. Hero has to go with it, right?

Think the flop bet is too big. Would you pot here with just AA? I'd go half pot probably. More than big enough to set up stacks to go in.

I think in any event you can't fold here. As the 3-bettor, this is one of the best hands you can have here, as I doubt you'd 3-bet 99, 66 or 96 unless they happened to also come along with AA or KK. V can probably thinks that any 6 is good here, and an aggressive reg could put you to the test with hands like T987, 87 with an over pair or other good draws. Of course, you run into hands like 99xx or 9876 some too. I gii here absent a read that the raiser is very nitty.

Half pot or even 1/3pot seems better here.As played although you could be drawing very

slim you can`t fold.Don`t think villain could have drawing hands like 78 or 78t here after

you made pot sized bet,but there s a good chance that he has random 6 and not fh.

I think you have to go with it. You could be behind 99 or 96, but since you 3bet pre he could easily think you are doing this to protect AA since you were checked to. You still have outs. GII. Good luck.

Can't fold now, bet smaller on flop (35-50% would be standardish)

Thanks all.. V had 96xx (boat), and I didn't catch up. I'm beginning to think that if I'm raised or x/r'd in these live games by a reg that I should pretty much just always give them the top 6, maybe 9, combos, in which case I'd be behind equity-wise to call it off -- unless they are particularly loose/maniacal. Of course it's a lot trickier on unpaired boards with possibilities for wraps and big combo draws.

I find that my biggest "leak" has been e.g., betting with second nut full house, getting raised, and calling it off because there are only 3 combos that beat me. Or middle set. And same with their pot-sized bets once the pot starts getting big. In my limited number of hours, it just seems very rare that they show up with anything less than the top 6 (two-card) combos, so at best I'm often putting myself in a spot where I'm way behind/losing to half their combos and maybe chopping vs the rest (e.g., K9xx on KK39J board or whatever)... Like I said, I'm still figuring out this game. I do very well at Hold'em, but have broken even at PLO over the lol-sample sized 150 hours since I've begun tracking. I think I would be way ahead if I just always folded in spots like this.

Agreed on smaller flop bet.

Are we agreed that we're not folding even if we bet smaller on the flop (eg - 35-50%)? Or are you saying the smaller bet might allow us to get away from this should the villian raise us the same/similar amount?

I don't think he's saying that, or, he shouldn't be if he is.

Depends on how aggro villain is here and how disciplined his hand selection is preflop (like could villain have jj54 preflop). Against a reasonably solid range, hero should have about 39.5% equity. Does villain turn 9x into bluffs ever or spazz with aa/kk xx hands? Have other low-equity bluffs? Does he overplay bare 87 or call any worse 6s instead of raise (like kk76 ds)? How agressive does he play wraps? Or a double-pair like 8877, tt77, tt88?

Certainly hero could sometimes call and fold to a terrible card like the 7c, where he is getting crushed against everything.

Its pretty hard to fold to a raise but there are certain live players who I could do it against this deep. Against a very narrow value range hero is going to have something like 22-27% equity.

Against the rare bird who only raises a boat hero only has ~9% equity and folding is easy.

This deep and marked for AA bet smaller on the flop representing naked AA -- you want to leave room for good/aggressive players to play back at you light (semibluffs and pure bluffs knowing that your AA is in a tough spot) as well as a bunch of his speculative 6xxx hands, then GII when raised and cross your fingers.

Side note: Not particularly a comment on this hand, but as a Holdem player you might want to consider playing shallower when getting comfortable with PLO.