effective stack sizes are about $280. villain is youngish and seems competent talking about how it is standard that he takes a beat because that is how he has been running for 2 months etc. he hasnt been opening very many hands at all. anyway he limps UTG and i make it $15 to go with KQo in MP.

folds back around to him and he calls. since he is competent i was slightly confused about how to range him tbh. set mining oop is never going to be profitable against me there...i mean i really dont think anything is going to be profitable in his position since we are hu. maybe a tarp. flop is KJT and i hold no spades.

fairly certain he views me as competent fwiw.

he checks to me and i bet $20. is this a good bet? i realized after i got c/rd (to 50) that i wasnt really sure how to handle a c/r here. this is obv a pretty decent cbet spot with his range essentially capped and me having tons of nutted hands that bet here. him trying to steal with a c/r seems so stupid. i think he would pfr AQ so i guess the only thing possible here is JTs, JQs, KQs and AsXs or other draws. maybe 89s too. as i write this i think that checking back is bad without more info about him. i don't think that check, call, call is bad cause i think he misses that board a ton but it's so damn suspicious 'cause i should be cbetting that board every time. i might check back AK/AJ tbh but that's about it. so yeah confusing spot, thoughts? nothing makes sense for him imo.

You bet 2/3ish pot seems fine. His cr is a joke. He may have nuts but surely he raises aq pre? I instacall that bluff and see what happens on the turn. If it bricks and he bets heavy i think i still call, he could have spades here or some pair + str8 draw or at best 2 pairp. If he checks turn i check behind. His line is weird

Flop cbet is obv, snap the small CR right off with a mind that you don't really want to stack off unless you improve. Play pot control from here on out. I put the top end of his range at KJ (competence is a relative thing), and it includes a lot of air and combo draws.

Yeah, the small flop cr is odd. When I see this it's usually 2 pair or some decent combo draw. The fact that you DONT have the A, Q, or J of spades in your hand makes it more likely that he does. I call the small CR on flop. However if he does BOMB the turn on a brick I'd actually lean towards a fold. As you said, his range is capped, ours isn't (we actually could have AQs here!). If he still bombs turn after we bet-call flop, I'd expect to see 2 pair more often and prolly find a fold.

don't really think that calling flop to fold turn is good. the last thing i expect someone who is competent to do is to check a blank turn.

so i called the flop after thinking for a bit. turn was 3 putting back door hearts draw out there but a blank otherwise.

villain leads 85 with 130 behind. now what?

I think it's a fold.

His value range is various two pairs + a set of tens.

We're barely ahead of his semibluffing range (AJ,QJ,KQ)

And it's hard to put him on a bluff range... would he really turn an underpair into a bluff here?

So at best we're slightly ahead, and a lot of the time we're behind. Fold.

I think you have to find a fold on the flop here. It may be nitty, but it is my experience that the C/R almost always means committed, even from a player you perceive to be competent. Also, a player who hasn't really opened at all is very capable of limping an AQ... I am not willing to commit here with my hand, and villain is, I think this is a fold on the flop.

As for the turn, it depends on why you called the flop. Did you call thinking you were ahead and unless a spade hit you would stay that way? Or did you call hoping to improve? If you called because you thought you were ahead you have to shove, if you called hoping to improve you have to fold, and if you called because you weren't sure what to do you have to fold, because you still aren't sure what to do and you didn't improve.

I can't argue with anything you have done to this point. I am afraid we are beat though. ? perhaps Q9 suited in a different suit? If he is bluffing, I suspect he has substantial equity against us here, but I still feel we are behind. I fold.

What suits are your cards? It matters.

The c/r smells like combo draws and him thinking your c-betting most times... I dont mind calling there. And then check/check future streets or check/call future streets..