Villain is late 30's football coach at a local high school. A couple of weeks ago he lead into me on a four straight board (4567) and showed 78o after I folded QQ to his RVR bet.

Preflop:
Hero: $500
Villain: $600

Hero is dealth AJ in the HJ

UTG folds, MP folds, Hero opens for $12, BTN calls $12, Villain calls $12, BB folds

Flop: (J 5 5) ($36)
SB checks, Hero bets $25, BTN folds, Villain calls $25

Turn: (J 5 5) - Q ($86)
Villain bets $60, Hero folds

Seems fine, especially given limited history. There will be better spots.

Even though we're shorthanded, $12 is still a small open (at least at my 1/3 table). I'd still typically easily go $15+. Just a better chance of getting things HU (which we weren't able to accomplish here), plus we simply win more money overall when taking it down in position with a flop 1/2 PSB cbet.

I'd also cbet the flop 3way with a vulnerable hand that is most likely best.

Stacks are large enough where we can probably bet/fold both the turn and river (without ever committing ourselves). I'll admit that conservative me would sometimes plan to check back the turn, which I don't think is horrible (loses less when we're behind, plus gets one more street out of weak hands like TT that might find a sigh fold on the turn).

As played, it's really read dependent. Based on the lone hand in the OP, looks like this guy simply bets his hand for value. There's very few hands he could be betting for value here that we're ahead of. We've shown strength on the previous two streets. The board is quite drawy and a made hand might want to protect against it. So I like the fold.

GcluelessNLnoobG

Hero's line looks good. $12 preflop gets you HU from the HJ when first to act most of the time at our local card houses. (Not Vegas.) C-bet on the flop is obligatory for value and to protect hand. 2/3 pot is fine given board texture, but I might lean towards 3/4 given vulnerability of hand and the fact that hero probably will get only one street of value from J-x hands.

Fold on the turn is perfect. Most likely, one of two things happened:
1) Villain turned TP and donked, or
2) Villain flopped a set of 5's. Slowplayed the flop, and donked the turn when he saw SD's and FD's on the board.

Villain might have turned a FD, SD, or both and decided to semibluff donk. IMO, calling on that basis would be way too paranoid unless villain was totally agro. There is no evidence of that given limited history or description. Calling turn probably -EV against aggro too - hero looks strong and might have a Q - but closer decision.

Ez fold

Well played.