1/2, $400 deep : NFD facing heat

I want to check-raise this flop. Fine if it checks thru, free draw.

Situation looks very different if V bets 15 and you raise to 65. Now he thinks you definitely flopped something, but more importantly, it becomes easier to play.

If he calls, when you check the turn, he may check behind this time and you realize your equity. You have to gather info and with the line you took, only V gains info. Obviously if he keeps charging, get out of the way.

The info disadvantage is real OOP, so if I get involved, I’m always considering the check-raise. Population respects this line and you gain a clearer picture of where you’re at.

I’ve noticed I tend to overplay my hand when I x/r here. What if he rips it in over the top?

A9s is a really marginal open in MP. I know it's pretty, but this is a hand that does much better in a bunch of limps and I have position scenario than in a if anyone calls I'll be OOP with a marginal hand one.

AP, I prefer a c/r, though betting small enough to give other FDs perceived odds to call with the chance of stacking them if you hit isn't bad. If you c/r and V rips, just fold.

AP with the lead, fold flop to the raise. He raised $50 more into a pot of $55ish (depending on rake). An old man has no raise/fold range on the flop, and you are not getting direct odds and have some potential RIO issues as well (though so does he with some of his combo draws).

If he might have a combo draw, then you could have good implied odds, because maybe flush over flush.

I don't like the cbet on the low connected flop, and the hand might have been easier to play as a x/r or x/c. I mean you have a huge nuts disadvantage. All you are likely to have is an overpair or high flush draw. Saying x/c might be results oriented, but a x/r also doesn't represent much. You are not likely to have a straight, set, or 2-pair.

PF is fine. It is good enough to open and frankly, you aren't looking to get to showdown with it.

I like the bet on the flop, too. If you had an overpair or even TP, your villain is expecting you to bet. There is also nothing better than someone putting you on a pair when you get the nut flush on the turn. Unfortunately, the old main villain clearly has something big without a read, so folding the raise is the best next step

Grunch:

PRE - seems fine to raise A9s from MP. If it's a loose-splashy game, I might limp in with it, and look to play a more small-ball / fit-or-fold strat post, at least until we've got a better command of the table dynamics and opponent reads.

FLOP - I'd either check or c-bet smaller, like 1/3 pot, when it's multi-way, and we're not trying to protect a value hand. If V bets small, I'd likely check-raise. If V bets large, I'd likely call.

As played, I think it's fine to call the raise, with our exact hand, though I might fold when he takes over 4x sizing. My reasoning is that I'm expecting him to continue betting for a large size on brick turns, or checking back on heart turns, and we're not going to feel super-comfortable even if we make TP on an ace or 9.

I wouldn't be giving him many straights. I'd think his raising range is mostly going to be 2P, sets, 1P + a draw, some combo-draws, and maybe some worse flush draws. The potential to flush-over-flush him would make it harder for me to fold right away.

TURN - Bad card to try to rep anything that improved, so check-folding is fine.

Rather than look at these spots as hands you played badly, I'd look at them as hands our opponent played badly. You actually played this fine, other than c-betting too large on the flop.

We probably would have barreled the turn, and maybe triple-barreled, had he not raised our c-bet. He's letting us off the hook and stopping us from bluffing by announcing he has a big hand. He's banking on our inability to get away from over-pairs, not realizing that we were semi-bluffing.

Consider that if you're opening a lot of PP's and suited connectors from MP, you're going to have some fairly nutted hands on this flop. When you get here with 2P+, you'll be blocking more of his value range, and can confidently continue.

your reaction to his raise / turn bet should show you that you don't really want to build a pot on this flop lol

you dont really have good hands nearly as often as co coldcaller (likely too wide) and sb caller (likely too wide) and you can't really handle board changes at all with your range. exploitatively you dont actually have a hand you want to get a ton of money in on the flop with either. would guess your best bet is to default to xing range and this is not like a shrug or it can go either way. your actual hand suffers if they raise, and you weaken your checking range significantly if you start taking your c/c range and leading with it. whatever you think you gain by betting on the flop, i think you can make up for on subsequent streets in the check line

for fun with the multiway solver. i started by looking at 200bb ranges hj opens btn calls sb calls. i think this is not a great comparison here because your open is really large and theyre probably too loose. but i think its a reasonable place to start. i changed the stack / pot to be right. i see sb leading 55% of the time and the guy in the middle still doing no betting with that the case. given that most people never donk, sb's range is overwhelmingly likely to be stronger than what the solver thinks. i will run this after with the bb flatting instead but this is still going to be a board the bb is going to be doing a lot of leading on in theory. when they don't lead you are supposed to cbet less than otherwise. so maybe u could try cbetting -10% of the time here. interestingly, IP is not doing much stabbing at all either here, even vs pfr range check. i believe the reason is that the sb's range is too strong for either mp or co to be able to start betting w any kind of regularity.

if i allow sb to donk (b25) and he elects to check, now button's stab frequency goes from ~17% to 40%. the issue here is you will not know if sb has any kind of leading strategy unless you see them actually lead. your default assumption should always be that anyone not very good is range checking here as oop (From sb). next i gave ip 2 sizes - b25 and b50 and it pure prefers b25. so not much large betting is getting done at all. my guess is if that happens he filters sb and mp down to sets / draws / pair + sd type hands very very quickly. vs an ip stab, sb is meant to play raise or fold which is interesting and something i havent seen a ton of (ive seen it range flat quite a bit) and i wonder if thats a product of the spr. it also really puts the pfr in a tough spot w his range where he continunes OP:h, sets, combo draws, and nfd exclusively, and never raises but just calls. zooming back out if u check and btn stabs and sb folds you have a pure c/c (which makes sense, you don't really have the equity to get it in as we can see from the actual hand).

again i have no idea if any of this matters. to me the biggest worry here (despite the fact we usually pure x this type of board as oop) is you need to contend with sb caller who usually has very strong range at least in theory. bc hes so pocket pair heavy he has a set 15% of the time vs ~3 for pfr and 5 for btn cold caller. so he really drives the action here from a strategic perspective. the other thing too is if the board checks through, you can fight vs 2 quasi capped ranges ott while knowing you are uncapped (you will over realize as a result). also if you do make a flush you have a ton of one heart bluff combos to choose from

circling back to your initial question of how to play these spots better, the answer is get good. don't randomly bet hands when your range can't support it because "its live 1/2 so who cares".

reran as bb vs mp opener vs btn flatter and bb is supposed to be leading small 40% of the time so everything above will still apply.

That you wind up folding this on the turn shows checking flop would have been better. Live, you represent almost all high cards, but fishy callers can hit this flop hard.