KK, HU troubles, to call down or not...

[PokerDork]

Lately I feel I've been calling down in spots where it justs seems like I cannot have my opponent beat, but I do anyway because the pot is head's up. Anyway, the hand took place at a live 5/10 game earlier tonight. The villain in this hand is a loose-ish, somewhat aggressive player, he plays his draws stongly, and his made hands straightforwardly, i've never seen him 3-bet, cap, or check-raise with a draw, but he will bet it out, and he will raise in late position, sometimes he takes a free card sometimes he semi-bluffs. Anyway, I'm not sure if that applies much to this hand, as he open limps in the hijack, and I raise in the CO with black KK. BB calls and he calls, 3-way to the flop.

Flop: 994r.

BB checks, CO bets, I raise, BB folds, CO 3-bets...

I called him down After the turn and river went T and J, respectively (no flush possible). My question here is, it seems unlikely that this opponet would 3-bet anything I could beat because hands like 77,88, etc. he would have raised pf. Nonetheless I called him down, is this correct, or should I be finding a fold somewhere in here? I've been struggling a lot with HU pots recently, and I can't seem to find the right middle ground between calling down when I'm unsure and folding when it looks like I'm beat. I couldn't put villain on a worse hand because he was aggro preflop, yet it seemed really unlikely that he would 3-bet trips or a fullhouse HU, as opposed to trying to check-raise the turn. This may not be the best example of my problem, but i'd still like input, Thoughts?

[Harv72b]

It's really about feel. If your opponent is tricky enough to lay off 3-betting the flop with trips or a boat in hopes of check/raising the turn, then I'd get pretty suspicious of the flop action and want to call down, too. If he's straight-forward with his made hands, as you say, then this looks like a pretty easy fold; me being a sucker for big pairs, I'd at the least have called the flop 3-bet to try and spike my 2-outer on the turn. That's a leak, but one that I live with.

You also have to consider how your opponent might view you, which you didn't mention in your OP. If you've been playing aggressively, raising a lot, and autobetting/raising to isolate on the flop after your PFRs, then his 3-bet could very well be a move by a weaker hand. Maybe A4 or a small PP, for example. This would obviously make calling down more attractive.

Honestly, especially in a game where your opponents are likely to remain fairly static for some time (like in a B&M game), I don't mind calling down in this situation even if you're all but positive he's got you beat. Table image should be a consideration, and you don't want people to think that you can easily be pushed off of big hands on the flop. In a similar vein, don't even think about showing your kings if you do fold--someone who likes to make the "expert laydowns" might as well stencil a big target on their forehead.