Villan is 20/18, and has been pretty aggro vs me. We're pretty deep here.

Full Tilt Poker $1.00/$2.00 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

Hero (SB): $432.15
BB: $208.00
UTG: $449.95
CO: $220.50
BTN: $195.00

Pre Flop: Hero is SB with K K
UTG raises to $7, 2 folds, Hero raises to $25, 1 fold, UTG calls $18

Flop: ($52.00) A 8 A (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $34, Hero calls $34

Turn: ($120.00) 5 (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG checks

River: ($120.00) J (2 players)
[color=red]Hero, c/f?

If you're going to call the flop, why not bet? It's highly unlikely he's going to float on this board this deep, and you've turned your hand into a bluff catcher.

I think not leading the flop is a big mistake here... especially after 3-betting PF.

When villain doesn't have an ace, he'll give you credit for a big hand pretty much always for a flop c-bet.

Obviously, if he raises the flop bet we have to fold, and if he calls, we have to shut down and probably c/f on a later street.

But at least we'll know where we're at.

By betting the flop, we'll usually win when we're ahead and find out quickly if we're behind.

By checking the flop, we can only be moved off the hand when we're ahead, or have value extracted from us when we're behind.

Yea, betting the flop doesn't get floated a lot and actually gets value from 99-QQ hands that will check it behind.

As played, I think I c/c river as he is probably betting the turn with an ace and checking behind the flop with worse hands that would call a river bet in that spot.

wtf, flop check is fine. we still have 2(!) more streets to get value form QQ-99, and its not like were EVER valuetowning him 3 times if he holds those hands anyway.

also its pretty unlikely for a 20/18 utg raiser to show up with an A here i think. hes not calling a 3bet oop with Ak/AQ very often if ever (4bets), and i think he probably folds small suited A's PF.
so as played b/f river for ~70 and get called by 99/TT/QQ

do you think he bets those hands after we checked the flop cs3 ? that makes no sense to me. Also I guess that checking that flop or not depends on the type of game you've been playing. I know I'd bet that flop w/ KQs so I'll bet it with KK too.

he may or may not bet with those hands but thats not my point. (but if he can have small AX then he can have other random crap, and he might bet his air hands, which is awesome.)
but more importantly, when this flop checks through we still have both the turn and river to bet... we'll look weak and get looked up lighter than when firing flop + turn or flop+river imo.

but i hate c/c river adn think thats one of the worst lines. b/f > c/f > c/c >>> c/r

also i dont check this flop every single time with KK, but checking is defintely not bad.