1/2, 7 handed, eff stacks $330.

Villain is a good player, Russian engineer, speaks English well, can hand read decently and apparently made his living for a few years in Russian underground games. 20 minutes earlier he'd spewed off $500 Sqzing AK, potting flop, jamming Turn with A high into a slow played KK but that was a little out of character, he's usually fairly solid but is capable of hero calling and bluffing.

V open UTG to $7 (very small in the game), Hero has AA UTG+1 and 3 bets to $20 (too small?), only V calls and announces "check dark".

Flop comes AdTd3s and hero checks behind (probably bad, thoughts?)

Turn is 8c, V checks, hero bets $25, V calls.

River 9s, V leads $55, Hero raises to $140, V clicks it back to $240... then the talking begins.

Hero sighs and says "JQ of diamonds right?", V replies "not diamonds but I have JQ" then points at the board and continues "see, I had the double belly buster on the turn, 9 or a King."

Talking continues for another minute or so, V insisting he has the straight hero is paralyzed knowing that people are almost always telling the truth in these spots but... top set in a really weirdly played hand and only needing to be right 17% of the time. Bleh.

Thoughts? call or fold? does it even matter what we decide?

Maybe larger pre if the table let's us get away with it.
Bet the flop.
Bet the turn larger probably.

Could go either way on the river. Probably a fold though.

reraise 30, bet flop and call river IMHO. they often lie in those spots i've found

Raise $25 pre. Check flop is good. Agree bigger on turn. I'm calling river.

Checking is fine on the flop. There aren't going to be be a lot of FDs in his range. It is about your only chance to collect another bet. I also think the turn bet sizing is fine. You don't want to blow out an under pair. The pot is only $39, so maybe you could go $30 instead of $25.

Where the wheels come off is on the river. The first question you should be asking yourself is why is the villain betting into you? The second question is what hands are going to call my raise that I beat?

Bluff: It is possible he could be trying to push you off some sort of TP hand with second pair or a busted FD. However, he's never going to call you once you raise.

TP: If he has TP, he would have bet the turn in case you were drawing. Plus he has the case A and enough value to not want to be pushed off his hand by a bluff. Odds are low he has it.

A set: As set should have bet on the turn as well. If it were 8s, he'd raise on the turn. I don't see 9s calling on the turn. Again, the odds are low he has this.

While a straight and a set will call or raise, it is just unlikely he should show up here with them. Therefore, I think the raise is a mistake.

The second mistake is to talk to him during the hand. All this does is give everyone else at the table insight as to how you play. By being worried about the straight, you tell him you have a set. Next time, stop talking and do more thinking before you act, not after you act.

OP, Curious at to what range of hands you assign V preflop.

Is turn bet large enough to price out the random QJ+ suited hands that might draw? By my calculation, it is as they should only have a 27% chance to hit against our perceived range of (AQo+,QQ+) and you're betting 25 into a 43 (20+20+2+1) preflop pot. Are my ranges way off?

How do you figure that you need only 17% showdown value to make the call? Want to know what range of hands you think V thinks we have and what range V would take this line with.

25 pre. Flop has to be a bet w the diamonds, even if he doesn't have them they'll slow the action. Even if it's only a small 1/2 pot bet it sets us up to bet the turn much bigger. The turn is bringing more draws into play and I would bet at least 2/3 pot there. River I think I would take notice of his size which is not blockerish and I'd settle on a call. who knows on the river. kinda cringeworthy when you ask him QJdd right? Like that's the only thing he can have

I could see betting or checking flop. I typically bet because it looks suspicious if you check flop and start bombing it later in the hand. Betting flop does lead to a lot of folds though, you hold the entire board.

As played snap call. Your hand is too strong to fold. Does he open qj utg? Looks like 8's maybe for set over set, or small pp he's turning into a bluff, based purely on the small size open from utg. If he has qj it's a cooler, take it and move on, never folding this.

At 1/2 never slow play big hands on flop, unless the flop is extremely dry, so dry that villain will fold to any bet. At 1/2 the goal is not to win mid sized pots often but double up once or twice. I would have bet 3/4 of pot on flop, 3/4 of pot on turn. This would have ensured that on river the pot would have been 250( assuming the V called all your 3/4 pot bets). When Villain calls such large bets it makes all draws unprofitable. Thus, most often villain has Top pair or two pair. In addition, now to bluff at this pot ( against someone who bet on preflop,flop and turn) will be hard for V and he would need to bluff with something like $150+. 99% of 1/2 players will not bluff on river when it needs that big bet.

I actually think the check on the flop is fine and would probably do the same. You have top set, and the only thing you're really scared of is the flush draw, which is fairly unlikely considering most of the hands in his range include an ace or a pair.

The one thing I'd do differently is adjust your 3bet size. It seems like a small bet, and I think you're fairly lucky to have been able to isolate pre. It also really increases the villains range and takes away information from you. I'd prefer a bet to 25-30.

Next, on the river, I'd probably just flat if I were you. I know you want to get value out of your set, but a draw did hit, and the last thing you want is for him to go over the top. I think you're probably beat, but for the odds you're getting, I think you have to call. It's possible he has KQ of diamonds, or an A10 that he now realizes is no good.

Call. Does he open qjo from utg? I'm gonna assume no so that only leaves 4 combos of qjs. He checks dark and is into table talk. This could easily be a set, 2 pair from someone who likes to get tricky. A lot of those hands could get to the river like this. Maybe even a bluff to get you off jj-kk if he thinks your scared of the ace since you checked back the flop