This is a hand from Friday night where I felt totally lost on the turn, being out of position suckssssss i know.

Hero: Young 20's kid, probably TAGish nitty image, ran well sitting on 1.2k stack, probably viewed as weak tight by V2 especially after these 2 hands lol

V1: $300 unknown weaker player

V2: $450ish Solid aggro LAG dude, capable of bluffing big, exploiting weakness, stealing pots, showing up with any 2. Played with several times before but he was new to my table which was a great table with deep stacks all around

A hand that actually happened afterward but maybe shows this guys tendencies, I felt like I got owned this hand too....Hero raises TT to $10, 2 villains call including V2. Board comes 348dd, checks to hero, hero bets $20, V2 c/r to 45, hero flats, Turn Qd, V2 insta bets $125...hero folds....my problem here was I didn't wanna over commit by 3b'ing the flop, i was comfortable calling down on various runouts but when the flush hits and he bombs the turn I just let it go....

The hand:

Hero opens QThh in middle position to 10

could def argue for more but this had been my standard tonight as there was little limping going on.

V1 flats, V2 flats

3 ways to the flop.

Flop: pot $30
39T

Hero bets $20, both v's flat

At this point I can put them on a multitude of draws, Tens and nines, v2 for a fact will continue with any piece of the board or draw and will very often attempt to steal if shown weakness.

Turn: pot $90
9

I really hated this card, because with V2 in the hand, and V2 knowing that I will be bet folding a lot of my range, i feel like if i bet he's going to rep the 9 every time and force me to fold or even flat any bet i make and put me in a tough spot on a lot of rivers. I check not knowing what else to do, v1 checks, and v2 instantly fires $70. I felt like this was a bet to try to end the hand, rather than trying to get value if he had the 9, so I'm thinking he probably doesn't have a 9, but he could very well have a better Ten, which given his wide range isn't tooo likely, so that leaves draws. I was so torn between calling the turn and check calling a lot of rivers, but I know he's capable of betting huge on the river with his entire range, 9's, draws that hit and busted draws, raising now because I feel like I am ahead of his range and don't really want to give him a free card to hit whatever draw he's on, but at the same time I didn't want to own myself if he did in fact have the 9 or even a better Ten, but that he might lay down to the check raise.

This is a problem I often wind up leveling myself into....when I know villains know that I'm bet/folding my strong but non nut hands, I feel like they might have the balls to exploit it by doing it to me with air, this leads me to owning myself if I do level myself into thinking they're semibluffing a draw or something.

So what was my better play on the turn, bet/fold ~$70ish myself, or maybe $50ish to keep in bad draws by v2 and check call safe rivers? what if I got raised....just fold? I checked kind of to induce, I knew V2 would stab a **** ton but when he actually bet on the larger side I got intimidated and didn't wanna commit $70 plus I'm sure at least a $150 river bit so I just backed off but I feel like I missed value or got owned. Maybe its just a range question I'm gonna plug it in now but I'd appreciate all thoughts on the hand. Thanks a lot guys.

Ranging.
It's a thing.

So, lets assume that villain will bet $70 with all the T's in his range, all the 9's, all the straight draws, all the flush draws, and some total air. Grab poker stove (or flopzilla, or whatever) and put that range into it, and see how you are doing.

If he will really bet all of his draws AND some air, I'm not folding here. And likely not folding any river card. But if he only bets his air some of the time, and his draws some of the time, but always bets 9x and always bets a stronger T, then it gets close. This is where knowing you villain can help.

Generally, the more aggressive our villains are with air type hands, the less we should be folding TP imo.

First off, I'm assuming both of these guys are behind you. If you have a good LAG IP against you, then you might want to consider not opening a hand like this pre and just dumping it instead. When you said there's not a lot of limping going on, sounds like for 1/2 and being deep, your table isn't that great. How is your table playing btw? Knowing if QTs is good or bad to open depends mostly on your table and opponents. Generally, I wouldn't open pre with QT, but that's just a slight nitpick. I don't have a huge problem with it. Sizing pre is fine if you're the first to enter the pot.

Before I go on, I'll give my two cents about V2's description. Ever since I started taking poker more seriously, I have learned just how truly poor a lot of LLSNL players are, that I used to perceive as good. I have seen maybe 1-2 truly "good" LAGs at 1/2. A few years ago, I might have thought there were a lot more. All other guys who I thought were good and laggy at these levels tended just to be more maniacal instead, and we're losing or break even players at best. That's because LAG isn't a good style to play at LLSNL. Average players at this level fold too little for LAG to be an optimal play style. Back to the hand.

Flop is fine, but generally, you could probably bet even more, up to $30. Even though it's a pot sized bet, hey "it's only $30." $20 is fine too though, just something to think about to get extra value.

On the turn... I just don't think you can check here man. Given description, you need to bet here. We need to try and get value from worst hands, which a lot are still out there. Straight draws, flush draws, pair and flush draw. Checking to induce generally isn't good, but it's even worst to do that on a scare card that we think hits our opponents range. This is because it automatically puts in to tough spots like this one where we aren't sure where we are at when they bet this card, and it can also potentially give off a free card. Both of those are absolute disasters.

Given description, you kinda have to start calling lighter against this villain in general.

If he's a good LAG, his range should be fairly wide here. He shouldn't be over calling on the flop with a big flush draw, such as Ax, he'd more likely raise that instead, realizing his hand equity combined with fold equity is pretty strong against your range. I'm not quite sure what he does with a hand like QT+. You seem like you've played with V2 a lot. Does he generally raise top pair types of hands on the flop OP? How about draws?

In my Poker Cruncher app, I entered his range as a lot of SCs w/ diamonds, a couple better Tens although it shouldn't be often, QJs, QJo, 87s, 87o, and a few different 9s. Against that range, you're a 57% favorite. This could be off a bit though since I haven't played with V2, so you'll have to enlighten me on this OP. In general though, this is where things get pretty thin. You'll lose here a fair amount, but I think you have to call here as played, and call if he bets brick rivers. You can fold to scary river cards. Check/raising would be bad, he's folding a lot of his bluffs when you do that, and his range then becomes much stronger when he continues on. I know you would just want to end the hand but that's not a good way to play. This is a very interesting hand though.

Interested to hear other's thoughts as well.

Spot on. Although now my post looks like a ramble.