I have been playing the 1/3 NL at the local casino for around 3 hours at the time of this hand. We are 9 handed. Been a fairly tight table so far, a lot of limping, not much 3betting and mostly premium hands being shown down.

Hero (~700): Early 20s white guy. Has been playing TAG, only seeing the flop around 5 times an hour. I have however 3bet more than anyone at the table (probably 4 times total, none went to showdown) so my image may be somewhat loose.

Villain (~300): 30s black guy (is stuck around 300). Seems to be on the loose/passive side. I have only seen him open maybe 5 hands in the 3 hours both of us have been at the table. I haven’t been involved with villain in any significant pots. I have only seen him show 1 hand where he was very aggressive the whole way with JJ, pre-flop and post on a 873 T board where the guy turned the nut straight(this hand was around 30 mins ago).

On to the hand. 2 limpers in early position Villain in HJ raises to 13 folds to Hero in SB with QcQs. Hero 3bets to 35. Blinds and 2 limpers fold to Villain who calls.

Flop (80): 3d9hAd

Hero checks. Villain bets 25. Hero?

BTW I know folding is out of the question. And how bad is it that I didn't bet the flop?

I really really don't like the flop check here. I think we HAVE to cbet here around $35 - $45 because of the 3bet. If we just flatted V's open then a check here is ok.

If I'm V, I'm always always betting here when the 3better doesn't cbet because I think I can get away with this play at 1/2 but do you really think this loose passive V would bluff here? And if we were to flat here, I think it turns our hand face up. Because why on earth would we ever check with AK AQ here. I think it'll look obvious now what we have if we call. I don't like 3beting here either as we are over repping our hand.

As played I'm probably folding - not sure if this is a leak or not. It's just so much easier to play when we cbet this flop.

If I'm heads up against a thinking player I sometimes will check flop with AK to induce a bet after I was Preflop aggressor.

As OP played, I fold to flop bet, call me timid but I'm OOP here and don't like where I'm at in this hand anymore. There will be better spots IMHO.

C Betting OTF I think is the best play and if he calls/raises, then check/fold turn. You 3-bet PF and then give up the action right away, so he can very easily dismiss an A in your hand.

You mentioned the table has been mostly limping and this guy raises PF. Was this raise out of the ordinary? Has he been raising regularly in LP or is with the herd limping along with everyone else?

AP, I think I am folding to his flop bet. Could be nitty to some, but given the table/villain history, I gotta put A10s, AJ, AQ, AK type hands in his range.

I would also prefer a c-bet here, but since V isn't particularly LAGgy I think we can call the fop (just 1/3 pot) and c/f to more agression on the turn absent a Q.

As played, I probably just check/fold. You're only beating JJ

I think a c-bet is probably better here and can fold out better hands.

You have to Cbet OTF. As played call is fine. Min raise would also be an interesting line.

To everyone who wants to cBet here, why?
There is exactly 1 hand that we want to fold out: KK.
AX is never folding. And we don't want JJ/TT to fold.

And any time that KK is folding so is JJ/TT so that's bad for us.

Why do you think that folding is out of the question?

agreed... Cbet flop ... fold now...

I cbet here to protect my big ace

Aren't we giving JJ/TT/xx the opportunity to bluff us out of the hand? Wouldn't it be better to have them fold then to have them bet?

You see this question more often in a HH with KK and an ace comes on the flop. However, the situation is similar. The consensus is to check for the reasons above. In this case especially since the villain is passive. Passive players are happy to check it down to see who won if they don't have an ace.

Agree with checking the flop versus what sounds like a loose preflop but fit-or-fold postflop villain. We just 3bet pre and the A hits our perceived range hard. What exactly are we getting value from by betting this dry board?

Personally if it was something like A67hh I could find a cbet here, because at least there are some draws to get value from.

If this was a fishy Villain who always thinks "i dont believe you" and floats with TT on this flop, then cbet all day and try to check through the turn.

As played it sucks but gotta fold.

I probably just flat preflop, but I'm probably more passive than most. There's not exactly a bunch of dead money in the pot yet, we're 100bbs (not deep, but not short either), and a guy that's raised 5 times in 3 hours has just raised; his last raise was JJ. If we get 4bet, we're going to have to fold, and that sucks, especially when we woulda flopped a set 1 outta 8 times. Flatting is dangerous because the limpers might come along for a 4way pot plus we'll be OOP, which ain't great, but I typically want to see a flop before I get on my way to committing 100bb stacks.

I would just check/fold the flop. A bet is unlikely to get called over multiple streets by a worse hand. A passive player is unlikely to bluff at it, and might just check back worse pairs on A high boards. If we call, things are unlikely to get much easier on later streets OOP (are we just calling and hoping he checks it down?). If he's betting JJ/TT, good for him.

Gusuallytakesthe"out-of-the-question"routeG

+1