Table: Hero and villain are only competent players at the table. The rest are loose aggro, weak tight, and bad.

Hero's image is on the nitty side. I occasionally show a bluff but almost always have it when the pot is 50bb+. Playing 25/10, raising a lot IP. $600+

Villain is thinking TAG. (actually its me! ) Same sort of profile type as hero. Has 3b often this and past sessions. Showed KQo for a squeeze this session and generally takes down the 3b pots on the flop. $600+

1 weak tight limps in EP, Hero has AcAh in MP and raises to $9, folds to villain on btn who tanks then flats, EP flats.

Flop ($28);

Jd 9d 3s

EP checks, hero bets $20, villain raises to $65, EP tank folds, hero... calls?

Turn ($158);

5c

Hero checks, villain bets $90, hero calls?

River ($338)

Jc

Hero checks, villain thinks and bets $180, hero?

Wat? I'm confuzed...

With all the tank flatting and tank folding and tank betting and draws missing I think hero's aces are good here. Villain would call pre with 33 pretty quickly. Could have 99 that was thinking about 3 betting. With EP tank folding and villain betting turn after hero calls I wouldn't put him on a jack, so imo it's either 99 or air. I would expect to see some sort of Gutshot+FD or OESFD that was thinking about 3 balling it preflop, like K10dd or Q10dd.

Hmm. Interesting spot. If villain is a thinking TAG he could be capable of three-barreling with anything, including missed draws. KT and QT are all quite possible. Certainly the half-pot bet on the river sure smells like a missed draw...

I actually think AJ is more likely than daniel9861 thinks....I think it's a crying call and I'd expect to see AJ or 99 about 40% of the time.

You screwed up by not leading the turn. Once you give up we lose control of the hand and can't make the best decisions.

Ideas: What do we think about a reraise on the flop? Make it, say $150 to go?

If we are ahead here, we want money going in. If we are behind here, we're going to find out pretty quickly after we 3!, I think. BUT, of course this is playing the reverse of pot control. Very bad for us if Villain flats with a set and we have to lead the turn.

So on second thought, I'm going with AnimalWarrior and thinking we can flat the flop raise and lead the turn brick for 2/3 pot. If we get called here, then the J on the river looks pretty bad for us, IMO. I think we b/f the river after this line, since I can't put Villain on anything I'm beating other than air, and air seems unlikely to continue after after this amended line.

How would I play this line if the river brought a draw in? I'm not at all sure.

Stolen wisdom of 2+2 authors: Big pots are for big hands.

Do you have a big hand after the flop raise? I wasn't there so I can't be too sure. There are certainly times to bail and times to go the distance.

preflop looks too small for my games, maybe it's fine for yours, but i'd go more.

the flop call is pretty important to focus on. if we call it's presumably because we have some read that villain is capable of semibluffing.

with that in mind, i'd b/f the turn. if he is going to bluff-raise the flop and the turn, we may just be outplayed, but most 1/2 villains don't have those moves.

I guess we can call the flop (call>>fold>>>>3bet?) and b/f the turn. I'd probably b/f some rivers too for value.

River is a fold imo.