Memorial Friday night, packed room. At the table for ~50 hands, dry, VPIP $ in 5 hands, raising 2 pre, missed flop, folded turn. Image is definitely tight, nitty perhaps passive. Table leaning loose-passive except for 2 good LAGs, one of whom has entered tilt mode.

V1 (BB ~$1000) – Mid-50s-60 Euro white male, neatly dressed, very active but knows when to exit. Not really critical except he donks the flop.

Hero (UTG+1 $460) – White male, mid-50’s, conservative image, drinking water, very quiet except for some light chatting with a very good player/colleague across the table.

V2 (MP1 ~$450) – 40’s white male, just sat down this orbit, played a few hands, l/c or l/f. Has not won a pot or gone to SD. No read on him, nor does he have a read on me, albeit “mid-50s/quiet” usually leans tight passive.

Hero open raises AhAs to $20, UTG+2, MP1, LP, and BB call.

Flop ($96) is Th-5h-5d.

[B]V1 leads for $30. Hero raises to $90, folds to MP1 who 3-bets to $175. Folds to Hero, pot is $391, Hero has $350 behind while MP1 has $255 behind.

Options and my thought process:
Fold – I have the Ah, so KhQh, KhJh may try this, but can 9h8h, 8h7h show-up? I think 6 combos of KK may be in his range. Obviously 5x is the major concern, but what are the viable combos? I think Ac5c, 5c4c, 6c5c, 5s4s, 6s5s are legit possibilities, but not 5Xo. Mistake in my ranging? Do I need to weight trips more?

Call - I have equity vs. the range above, however how do I play a blank turn, C/F? Is their min-raise a probe, will my call slow him down?

4-bet – this would fold hands which is obviously not good, but does charge the FD extra $. He may not fold draws but at least I’d get the $ in as a favorite. 4-betting will not fold hands that I am behind.

Help appreciated on all avenues. Thanks in advance.

Raise more preflop and you won't be put in as many of these tough spots. I see little value in raising this flop, especially 5 handed. I just flat there. As played, fold.

In small stakes games in EP with AA, I typically like either: a) limp/back raising. if hand limps around, play small pot. or
b) raising much more than normal.

For example, the 2/5 games I usually play, the standard raise is 5-7x bb. If you open for this in EP and 1 person in MP calls, this starts a chain reaction of callers. In EP with AA, I like to raise to 9x bb or more depending on table dynamics. Sure a couple players may notice this, but overally most players at low stakes do not pay enough attention to realize you're raising more from EP, and even if some do, just do the same thing once in a while with 87s and make sure the table sees it.

If the table dynamic is pretty much never a limped pot all the way around, limp/back raise with AA in this spot. You'll collect a lot of dead money and also probably pick up 1 caller who's money is likely dead on your flop Cbet.

As played, I think you fold here. You have no info on villain. If you had past history with him and know he likes to push his flush draws hard, I'd shove here.

Since you dont have this information, I'd say you're like up against TT, A5s, 54s, 65s 75s. Against unknown villain, I'm likely thinking this is a 5 not wanting to let flush get there cheap. Its almost never TT, you'd likely just get flatted on your 90 raise.

Also, without info on villain, we can't assume he's a vampire wizard, but we can't assume he's a total idiot here. So we need look at things from a basic ABC stand point. He sees you raise pre, someone donk the flop, you raise flop, and he's still 3 betting into 2 players, one of which is pre flop raiser. That alone indicates a lot of strength, and shouldn't be taken mildly until you know if this guy is a maniac who will try to get it all in on a flush draw.

Bet more preflop or limp/raise. As played fold.

If you were in your twenties I think we play this hand differently post-flop. I just think you being 50 years old and with him being in his forties, his perceived range for you is weighted more strongly than if you appeared younger. I think your opponent is almost always thinking you have two pair in this spot. Tx-AA.

Considering that your opponent could be a loose fit or fold type player he doesn't seem to be the type to put you on a two pair hand and have the foresight to try and steal this pot. If you were younger I think your opponent may sometimes raise draws and sometimes two pair hands on this board. In your situation I think we can fold here.

+1