2/3 Spread

Brief table summary: I've been playing for about an hour. Reloaded for ~30BBs early in the session after making a (probably poor) river call. The players on my right are rec players from what I can tell, and they're deep, which is awesome. Two of the players on my left are pretty tight, so I'm thoroughly taking advantage of position thus far. Most of the pots I've taken down have been c-bets in position.

V: ($700) 30s white guy sitting immediately to my right. Has been hitting hands hard over the past orbit or two: hitting sets, getting paid with AA, nut flush. Played them all fast when he had the goods, didn't take much time when betting. His demeanor and presence has led me to believe he's a rec player that plays really straightforward poker.

Hero: ($270) 20s white guy. Dressed up because I came from a meeting.

*Qs exposed preflop* 2 folds, V raises to $15, Hero raises to $40 with KK, folds around to V who calls $25 more.

Flop ($80): KQ5r

V checks, Hero ???

It would affect how i play this hand. I would check now, because i crush this board so hard and the exposed Q makes it less likely that V has a queen and the only draw out there that can call a sizable bet is JT.

If you let V see the turn, V can improve to flushdraws, lower sets or a pair and your flop check might make him believe you have AJ, AT, JJ, TT... (something that missed or will fold to a bet).

I don't see a straightforward V having too often a strong enough range on that board to call a cbet from 3-bettor.

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It would almost always affect how I played the hand. Most people don't float with just second pair (especially when the top pair is high). You currently crush the board right now. I would check it back and let him go for it or try to improve. The only hand you don't really want him to have is JT and that's probably only a small part of his range. His big hands will pay you off anyway and he doesn't hit the flop super hard as there are only 3 'big' cards (two Qs and a K).

I check the flop and then bet big on turn and river unless he really is trying to get it in when a straight card comes. If he plays pretty straightforwardly, you should be able to get max value and get away from his big draws that hit.

Wouldn't affect how I play it. Yeah, it takes out a lot of his monsters but since you got so much money in pre-flop it's not like he has to have a monster at this point to stack him. 3 bets just under 1/2 pot should do the job. If he's so straight forward, it's unlikely checking behind is going to do anything but possibly give him a free chance to hit a gutter.

It doesn't matter. You still need to get money in the pot. It's a rainbow flop...anything he's folding isn't improving anyway.

$50

Mostly this and if we err, it's usually much better to err on the side of getting money in the pot when we're good. There's a decent number of hands in his range here we can get value from so let's get to work.

One thing we're missing which has a significant effect on this hand - what position are you and V? Was this a EP raise from V or HJ/CO? We need to know this so we can start figuring out what kind of hand he might have.

However, I think $50 is a bit much and will chase off a lot of hands. This is opponent dependent and should affect our planning. Start thinking about all three streets right now. The amount of money you can get in the pot right now - and your opponent's comfort level with that bet - can help our exponential betting.

If this is EP-MP, this guy as described didn't raise $15 with J10.

Hands that may have done that that will fold to any bet, so we can't feel too bad about a fold - 99, 1010, JJ. Hands that will call to see a turn for a smaller, $40 bet - KJs, AQo/s. Hands that will/may RAISE a smaller $40 bet - AK, KQ, QQ.

$50 may prevent hands that want to raise us from raising, and chases off more marginal ones. Betting amount is the most reliable tell we exude, whether it's an actual one or a countertell.

Against a straightforward player who just bets when he has something, I think I'm bet/bet/betting. I just don't think we gain much by slowplaying here.

To clarify, V was 3rd to act preflop. Full table.

UPDATE:

Flop play: V checks, Hero checks.

Turn: T. V leads for $50.

Will explain the reasoning for the flop check when I get some time later on tonight.

So now you're beat by AJ and are going to hate a ton of river cards anyway.

Unless he has exactly TT, whatever he is leading ott would have called $45 otf.

That is the lesson here.

It's time to put it in.