Villain (500bb) is mid-20s reg, has been running well and I have only seen him showdown solid hands. I do not have much history with villain, but have seen him in the card room most of the times I have been there. We had an AA v JJ confrontation within the last 30 minutes, but have not been involved in many hands together.
Hero (250bb) early-30s rec player. I have been caught bluffing once, recently, and I am going to give villain credit for noticing, but he has been distracted by another reg chatting with him from a nearby table.

Table is full-ring with 10 players.
V (MP2): Raises to $8
Call, Call, Call

Hero (SB): TJ Flat Call

Folds back to Villain

Pot: $42

Flop AKQ

Hero checks

V: Bets $30

Fold, Fold, Fold

Hero: Raises to $75

Villain tanks....

My thought process was 1) I gots the nuts plus BDFD, 2) His range should have connected hard with the flop, 3) We are deep and I want to build this pot.

Thanks all!

This flop had to hit someone 5 way. I much prefer to lead here vs. a potential check around or 3-bet/backraise scenario.

grunch: ok...

i would have normally folded JTs from sb but that's a great multi-way hand and you're assured multiway action (and you get to close the action) so i'd have probably called too.

on that flop i think you have 2 choices... lead out big (which i probably would have gone with since this is a drawy board, there are 5 players here, and i wouldn't want to get too fancy out of position)... or you check raise. check raise you risk it getting checked around and you also scream strength wheras i think you set yourself up for more action for this street and those that follow with a lead out.

you check raised... which i think is ok but i would have made it a lot more... at least enough to give improper odds to a flush draw which is the most likely hand to call you.

I like the flop check/raise, because the field acts after the villain and you have the opportunity to trap them all between you. I agree with 85chickasaw that your raise should be bigger.

Thanks! I was thinking that leading out was better. Villain said he folded a monster, but I can't make sense of that statement. I may be mistaken about callers and initial raise (need to start taking notes).

What is our calling range if we are folding JTs? What should bet-sizing be with lead? 3/4 seems about right. I also discounted flush draw and weighted it more towards sets when I potted, for this villain.

What is villain's normal preflop raise size? $8 is very small for a 1/2 game. Particularly with stacks this deep, seems like a pot-builder.

I usually like to bet-bet-bet with the nuts, but agree with previous posters that this is a nice spot to let V c-bet and attract some loose calls.

Once everyone else has folded, though, I think I prefer calling the flop and then either donking the turn or check-raising the turn. The problem is that your check-raise looks very strong, and his range is super-wide. I expect him to call with hearts and with 2 pair+, and to chuck everything else in his range. Your plan was to let him bet so you could play a multiway pot with the flopped nuts. You didn't get your multiway hand. So now I think it's worth underrepping your hand and keeping his bluffs in play on the turn.

sierradave, I may be wrong about the initial raise, the bet sizing for this table has been erratic and low all night. Underrepping once the folds occur makes sense, but I weighted him towards those hands 2pair+, less the flush draw. Since you and chickasaw suggest a larger C/R (if that line is chosen), what does that mean to you? JTs is really all I am concerned about, maybe AJ. are we shooting for 2:1 v 3:1?

to answer op's follow up question..

here is my general rule... and i often go through phases of ignoring this rule and i can tell you for certain that my win rate is much lower when i ignore it.

rule: preflop; don't call out of position (fold or raise)

this goes against the thought of build pots in position, keep them smaller out of position. but i find at low stakes this really helps a lot. and to be clear, i'm not saying to raise hands you would normally call with... i'm saying fold those hands.

there are exceptions i allow however.

exception a: small pocket pairs (set-mining)
exception b: suited Ax (flush draw mining)
exception c: really big implied odds (this rarely applies, but i think this applies in your case here)

with all of these exceptions.. i'm quick to give up. i don't do well "fighting for pots" out of position.

Pre-flop is definitely good. JTs oop getting > 4:1 direct and 250BB deep? Folding is criminal.

I think leading the flop is best.

This flop gives gives villains pieces of the board with any broadway cards, Ax hands, , draws, etc. While it hits ranges, people aren't necessarily going to bet on a flop like this, even with decently strong one-pair hands. Further, a turn heart, J, or T (that's 18 total cards - 9 hearts and 9 J + T) could kill your action. That's a lot of cards. And a few other cards will kill your action, as well (another K vs. Ax hands, etc).

Basically, nearly half the cards in the deck make it tough for you to get value.

Check/raising is the other option, and that's not terrible. But leading is better. You might even get a lot of bet/folds from hands like AT or w/e facing your check/raise, whereas you could potentially win 2-3 streets of value bets if you lead out yourself.

Lead for pot or even more, maybe $45-$50. They either have something on this flop they like or they don't. It should hit most Villains pretty well, and 2 pair / sets aren't folding. Check raising is too transparent here IMO.

Pre-flop:

This is probably a fold to a raise (complete if limped), but calling is likely only marginally -EV if the pot is multiway enough. The problem with playing very multiway pots with JTs is we can get coolered by better flushes when we get there. It's almost like we are just playing this for nut-straight value and the fact that they are suited doesn't matter. I mean, it does, but JTo runs a lot closer to JTs than A3o does to A3s. And I'm guessing the OP is folding JTo, but maybe not.

Flop:

Never ever leading here. Of all the possible flops – the millions or billions of flops that can appear–, this might be the #1 flop least likely to be checked through multiway. If it gets checked through, then that means pretty much everyone has underpairs -- and in that case we want them to hit a set on the turn. But really, someone has a decent piece of it almost every time.

Furthermore, our perfect relative position (with all those players acting after the raiser but before us) makes leading terrible.

Let's say the villain has KK, and we check. He bets the flop, and a player behind him calls with KJ or whatever, then we check raise. Now we are playing for the villain's stack and got the free money from the caller. Now let's say instead that we lead for $30. Due to having 3 players left behind, our villain is forced to give his hand away. If he has KK he probably raises us and the villain behind him folds. If he has 99 he folds. Another reason to check is that the villain may cbet-spew with 99 and have callers with pairs + gutshots behind. No way he can just call us with a set or two pair here, unless he puts us on our hand and goes fullhouse mining, which is also terrible for us. What if we lead, get 2 callers, and a heart or A/K/Q falls on the turn? Check/fold right?

So yeah, leading gets us way less money than check/raising here, mainly because this flop isn't getting checked through. We really want to build the pot with the nuts now and protect our hand from flushes/full houses, so....check.

While I like the check-raise, I do not like the amount. First of all, we are $500 deep here, so it's okay to make our check raise bigger to make it easier to get stacks in. Second, our hand is actually really vulnerable here – any heart, ace, king, queen, jack, or ten may kill it or our action. That's, like, a lot of cards. But most importantly, our 2.5x check-raise is terrifyingly small. I think we pretty much turned our hand face up there. Let's make it $100. $100 looks bluffy to some players and more like the flush draw. This villain sounds like a hand reader, and he saw you bluff earlier.

Turn, good cards:

If he calls the check raise, I'm tank-betting $80 on the turn (assuming no /A/K/Q/J/T). This 100% turns our hand face-up to thinking villains as a flush draw setting the price, and if he has a set or two pair, he will almost definitely raise us. I've had the chance to try this move against good, aggressive players three times, and I've gotten the raise I wanted with a 100% success rate – but only counting the first time.

We can just lead the turn for $150 if we want to play it more straightforward. But the fake blocker-bet really works, at least in my small sample.

Anyways, if we get the big raise we want on the turn, we may as well shove after a few seconds. Make the timing like a "**** it, I'm mentally committed and winning this pot" without actually doing anything stupid like sighing or shrugging or **** like that. He will either call because he's emotionally invested, or he will correctly fold, and we get to blow him off his full house equity in a gargantuan pot.

Turn, bad cards:

If a heart or J/T comes in on the turn, we bet whatever amount we think he will call. It'll be really hard to get value here, we are far more likely to have the flush than he is and we both know this. A $150 turn/$75 river line will protect our equity and be small enough relative to the pot to induce some crying calls.

If an A/K/Q comes, we can check/fold and feel fine about it. If he turns counterfeit AQ into a bluff on a K turn (pretty ballsy), good for him. There is absolutely no way we can call him down this deep, out of position, on a board where his range demolishes ours and demolishes our actual holding.

Leading is fine but I think checking isn't bad either, the flop is going to hit a huge portion of villains range, and with 2 hearts, most will bet to protect