Call. I'd put him on 2 pr. My guess is that he had you on AA or AK.

If you know he wouldn't do this with a draw that is almost MORE of a reason to call. Even the worst nits can't wait for set over set. And if they can, agro them out of every other pot until you get your money back.

This makes no sense whatsoever.

Is this one of those spots where its close enough not to matter much in the long run?

I just don't like calling big bets without substantive reads in marginal spots. Based on what we have we know villain doesn't raise a lot but do we have a read that he is the sort of passive calling station that looks to bingo 2 pair and then stick it in? If so we call always.

Is our image such that villain is influenced by our play?

Is this a spot that we can fold a nearly neutral EV spot and reduce variance?

i 100% agree with this. the fact that you haven't seen this guy raise in three hours is precisely the reason he might very well overplay K8, AA, and yes, even AK here. he's sat there and sat there waiting for a hand. now money's going into the pot and he has a very strong hand. is he folding? absolutely not. is he just calling? not with that diamond draw out there! so he's raising. how much? may as well shove!

plus, while limping AA is epidemic with these players, limping KK is not nearly as common. it's just too painful for them to see an ace-high flop. so that definitely diminishes the number of times he'll have KK here.

yeah, he had it, but ranged out properly, you definitely made the right call -- not because you hit the hand you wanted so you have to go with it, but because you're ahead of the range, plain and simple.

+1 dgi has explained it superbly. I would call unless I have a very good read (very very rare for me) that V has a better set - KK is remote possibility with so many limpers so I am only worried about 88. But given the other hands in his range (AA, Kx, FD) I am calling all day long.

Pretty much this.

If I'm playing for a set in a pot where the effective stack is 150BB or less the money is going in on the flop 100% of the time is the OR wants to play for it.

Old guys protect with dry K's on boards like this because they want to push out the FD. He's going to have AK and KQ here a lot imo.

This isn't a stats fold, it's a read fold. You had the read right so I'd say trust it.