I played in a live $1-2 NL game yesterday, 9 handed. A fairly tight player raised to $12 from MP ($213 behind). I'd seen him raise only a few hands pre-flop, and he played pretty weak post-flop (rarely bluffed, called river bets w/ weak hands). A regular called on the button. I raised to $50 in the SB, w/ As-Ac ($400 behind). Everyone folded to the original raiser, who called. The button folded. When the villain called, I was sure he had KK or QQ, based on how he played. The flop came Ks-7s-3s, giving me the nut flush draw. I bet $50. I'd usually make a bigger C-bet, but I figured I had a 50% chance of being up against a set, so I wanted to play a little more cautiously. The turn came Qc. At that point, I was sure I was beat. I checked, the villain went all-in for his remaining $125, and I folded. I showed my AA, and he showed me Qs-Qd, for the set. I had 10 outs, and would have had to call $125 to win $339. The pot odds obviously weren't there for me. How could I have played this better?

3bet smaller pre. we want to encourage calls as long as we can narrow field. i make it $35 pre. flop cbet is fine. turn is tough. sure if u can range him on qq kk only...then fold. but if he ever has ak here its a bad fold.
btw with the king on flop.....he will have kk 33.33% of time on flop and qq 66.66%

I think $50 is too big of reraise preflop. It actually helped you grow the pot in this situation, but in general I'd say raise 2.5-3x the original raise.

Also if the player is as week as you say, you also have to put AK in his range and maybe even KQ. With those being a big part of his range and you getting almost 3-1, I'd say calling with AAs is the right play since you have at least 22% equity and possibly 40% or 95%. It just so happened that you made the correct fold this time, but in the long run against his range, I like a call.

If you have narrowed villain's range to KK/QQ I don't see much value in betting this particular flop.

the responses you're getting are really ridiculous. if you've read that vilian is super tight and only would call a 3 bet with KK-QQ then 50 is a perfectly fine sizing. if we make preflop $35 then button is looking at $23 into about $85. why are we giving people 4/1 when we have aces?

this is a big problem with lower level or newer players. they give people great odds to call them and then talk about how their aces got cracked by 87 suited. well if you give me 4/1 with 87 suited i'm going to call you every single time.

your bet sizing on the flop is really not that great. i think $85-90 is good. the preflop action we was $12 $12 $50 villian had to call $38 into $74. the effective stack is about $170. you hit a set 11% of the time 1/10 flops he doesn't even have enough money behind to garner equity from his play. you would have to pay him off $308 for him to even break even. i would just bet $90 on the flop and never fold. if he flopped a set good for him, if he wants to call with QcQs thats perfectly fine for us.

you can't be results orientated and you certainly shouldn't be afraid of a set when you've already given someone a horrible price to set mine. also, i would like to note that you have 34% equity against KK on the flop.

Thanks for the responses, everyone. I don't mind my pre-flop raise, b/c I didn't want to give the button good odds (assuming the villain called). My problem was my flop bet. I see that now. In retrospect, I think I should have bet at least 3/4 of the pot and called a shove, or if he just called, then check/call the turn (at that point, I'd be getting about 4:1 w/ 10 outs).

With the way I played the hand, though, I still think I should have folded on the turn. I had his range at only KK or QQ.

You're both wrong about flop sizing.

If villain's range is KK, QQ, why do we want to bet big on the flop? QQ without a spade is going to fold on this flop most of the time. Checking back is fine but you don't need to bet more than $30 on the flop and SPR will be good for a turn shove.

Obv I think your assumption about his range being KK/QQ exclusively is bad. At the VERY LEAST he also has AKs but most likely all AKo combos too. In which case (you blocking As) you'd want to bet the flop so AK doesn't get to fold.

Don't show your hand next time.