Villain - Casino reg, 50-ish usually seems to have a healthy stack. I used to think he was TAG, but two hands this session have caused me to change my opinion, including one where he won a big pot defending blind from button with J2s, led with the draw, c/c called turn and rivered a flush.

Hero - playing fairly tight after being card dead. Recently reloaded after going all in on a draw which I did not show (lost to pocket 3s). Since rebuying for $400 I have chipped up to about $500, mainly from semi-bluffs and have not shown down in a while.

Pre-flop: UTG straddles to $10. He is an aggro spewtard and also the one who called my pot sized all in with pocket 3s to bust me the first time.

Hero: calls straddle with 99. I am expecting spewtard to raise over the callers and then plan to 4-bet. This plan is foiled when MP raises to $35. Sadly, spewtard folds and I call.

Flop ($87) A68

I lead out for $45. Villain calls.

OK so this lead bet was not great. I thought from villain's POV, my most likely holding was either a big ace or a medium pocket pair. I donk bet to rep the ace figuring he may fold out a better hand and if he called or or raised I would give up on the hand. I hated folding with just one over and I figured there was no chance he would check back, so I wanted to set the price and take the initiative.

When he smooth called, I figured he most likely had something like JJ-KK or AJ, AT type of hand.

Turn ($177) 9

Hero?

i love another bet here...something like 2/3 the pot. if he raises, shove. but villain could get it in ligh with a strong Ace, thinking he can steal or create good enough FE, for you to fold.

If you're going to lead flop, I'd say 60 so you can 125 turn and 250-300 river. As played still 125

does anyone ever go for a c/r here? if we check, we look like a weak A, or maybe a one pair/draw type hand looking to get to showdown. leading out probably folds out all of his pairs 10-K, and even if he checks back we are likely to get a street of value due to the turn weakness. betting here folds out all but the most stubborn V's. if he has a good A, we'll get two streets of value anyways.

I know that this may be a bit too FPS'y, but I don't see how leading here gets as much value as checking. just a thought for that side of the coin.

that was my first thought, but a check could be dangerous, when a straight card comes on the river and we are OOP. especialliy if he checks behind us OTT

Thanks for the feedback. Results: I bet $90 and villain folded KK face up.

Preflop: You should have raised when it was your first action. Planning to limp/raise 99 vs. a straddle and with your described table dynamics doesn't seem to be right. As played, when you call MP's raise the pot is $62 we immediately paying $25 creating a pot of $82ish after the drop? Being only 100bb deep I'm not sure I'm a fan of this preflop call. And this situation is even more the reason, why I advocate initially raising PF.

This is going to be a very tough hand to postflop OOP. Your opponent has a much wider actual hand range then your perceived range. Which means you are going to be playing guessing games a ton postflop and are going to get exploited.

Flop: I dislike leading here. Very few things work out well for you - Hands you beat fold, most Ax and TT+ peel one here. You are never really getting a fold from a better hand with this lead. Certain times you will be bluff raised off the best hand. You can't rep anything, your range doesn't have a ton of Ax in it, and would you really play Ax this way? There are only two combos of sets, and this is a horrible board texture to lead sets. So you can't rep anything.

check/folding, check/calling, check/raising are ALL WAY BETTER options then leading.

As to check/? which option is best is player dependent.

- Does your opponent 2barrell a lot, does he go for thin value a lot? If the answer to those questions is no, you might be able to check/call and then see a showdown cheaply by exploiting his passiveness despite posistion.

-If your opponent does 2 and 3 barell sometimes, can we c/r this flop or perhaps even consider c/c'ing down if he is very spazzy. Vs aggressive types of players both plays can have merit. Overall though, C/r'ing would be best against players who are somewhat AWARE they know to cbet this board texture, but they will play straightforward vs. a check raise.

- If your opponent is very good and balances, c/f'ing and just admitting you made a PF mistake might be the best play.

Honestly, it is very player dependent.

Turn: Bet the turn as played.