Top two, heads up, worried about a set

[PoBoy321]

So tonight I'm playing on UBet, .25-.50 and the table broke and I wound up playing heads up against this loose/passive calling station who was just throwing money at me.

I've been playing aggressively and raising every hand on the button. A few hands before, I stacked him when he slowplayed KK from the SB and let me turn a gutshot with Q8o. He just rebought and has some weird amount like $38.10 or something, so I figure it's probably the last of the money in his account. I have him way covered.

I'm in the SB (button) with K /images/graemlins/heart.gifJ /images/graemlins/heart.gif. I raise it to $2 (my standard raise) and he min-raises me to $3.50. This is the first time he'd done it all night, every other time he'd just call or fold. I call, planning on playing the hand as a drawing hand, and I'm certainly not willing to go to the felt with any one pair hands (although he could conceivably pay me off with worse). So I call, $7 in the pot.

Flop: Jxx rainbow.

He checks, I check behind.

Turn: K /images/graemlins/diamond.gif, two diamonds on board.

He bets $6, I raise to $15, he pushes. I figured it was an easy call because of the stack sizes, but I wasn't happy with it.

My problem here was that I really hadn't seen him get aggressive like this, but that I could see him playing AA or AK in the same way, but I really didn't know how he'd play something like JJ or KK here.

Thoughts? Or is this just another one of my boring, standard, weak/tight second guessing myself questions?

[ThePortuguee]

You're going to fold top two heads up for 20 dollars with over 35 already in the pot? I put your Villain on aces, AK also a strong possibility, and yeah maybe he's got KK or JJ but you've got to figure those to be much less likely since you're holding both a K and a J. If you think about his line AA makes a ton of sense from that type of player: minraise to try to keep you interested but still get money in the pot, check the unders on the flop and then get it all in on an underboard after he thinks you've "caught up."

Now actually JJ makes a little more sense with this line, slowplaying top set after a minraise preflop with a premium hand, but if he's got it you're just going to have to pay him off cause I can't find a fold for 20 more with top two there.

[PoBoy321]

What do you think about me checking behind on the turn? I wasn't sure if I like it or not, given the range of hands that I put the villain on.

[ThePortuguee]

You mean calling the turn instead of raising? I'm pretty sure it says he bet the turn, so you can't really check behind...

[soah]

Lots of bad players will do this with AA or AK. Laying this down would be crazy.

[PoBoy321]

Whoops, I meant checking behind on the flop.

[ThePortuguee]

Check behind on the flop is fine, especially since I think that at that point you're behind. If he wants to give you four cards instead of just three to take down his aces, so be it. With a pair of jacks in that spot you've got a powerful hand but I think you're benefitting more from the card off than he's going to.

[soah]

I frequently check behind in situations like that where my opponent's play is totally bizarre and I have no idea where I'm at in the hand. If I bet there's a decent chance I'll get checkraised by hands which beat me, and I'll have to give up on the hand when a free turn card could have helped me. And if I'm ahead, he may fold something drawing extremely thin (AK, TT, etc). By checking the flop you keep the pot small enough that you can usually get to showdown, and you increase the chance of getting action from worse hands.

[PoBoy321]

Villain shows A /images/graemlins/diamond.gif3 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif for a flush draw, I forget if one of the rags on the flop was a 3, to give him a pair+flush draw. Either way, I called the push, and MHIG (well, he outdrew me, but that's besides the point).

I was just kind of surprised to see a very passive player all of a sudden getting very aggressive, and I didn't know what he'd do it with that I beat.