Let me set the stage. it's a Wednesday night about midnight at a pretty decent table. I have grinded my way to about a $550 stack. My image is probably TAG - I am a middle aged 50 year old guy wearing a red Phillies hoody.

The main villain in the hand is a friendly old black guy (FOBG)

FOBG seems pretty passive mostly limping in with the occassional small raise to $5 or $6 which does nothing to thin the field at a typical $1-2 table.

2 pots where he previously raised and showed some aggression. One where there was a donk bet of $20 into the raiser in a raised multi way pot, a cold call and a raise to $60 on a 7-8-9 board. FOBG made it $140 and drew folds and showed the nuts (J-10).

Another hand he played TPGK (KJ) like the nuts in a medium pot where he cold called a raise pre and raised the raiser's $35 cbet with a couple behind. He ended winning the pot when he rivered another J and dodged a flush draw and gut shot.

He has my stack covered going into the hand in question.


FOBG opens for $5 UTG and there are a couple calls so I call from the SB with 97The flop is 79K I decide to lead strong and make it $20 into the $25 pot. I generally like to lead strong into the raiser (especially on a drawy board) which naturally leads to people thinking I am weak. The FOBG snap raises to $60. It gets to another player who shoves his short stack of $79. My read is that the FOBG has a big K and I am ahead. I am not thinking he is drawing as I put the shorty on the FD so I am not overly concerned about protecting my hand....What to do...what to do?? I have $500+ behind and FOBG covers.

Make the call. Please explain merits of raising, calling or folding.

Thanks

Raise because it should be hard for villain to fold on draw heavy board and there are lots of scare cards that could kill the action on the turn.

Based on your reads and what PokerIsTooEasy wrote, I raise.

Raise to 175. If FOBG confidently shoves puke fold. Otherwise if you sense any uneasiness from him snap shove a good turn.

Thanks my gut said to raise but ended up calling. Turn brought me a boat (7) and it should have been an action killer but I led for $100 and he hesitated and called. River a 5 and based on his hesitation on the turn, I didn't think he would call that much. I VB another $100 and he tanked and said, "I know you hit the 7....but I call $100" he mucks as does the shorty. I wonder if I lost value but I think he may have called another $100-150 on the flop but is certainly folding to river shove absent hitting a K.