too passive here?

[furfur]

$1000+50 live. 200 entrants. 120ish remain. Blinds 50-100. Hero w/ 8k. Villain with 11k. I've been at table only a couple of orbits but villain has been very active. My image is standard. Folded to hero in CO w/ A,Ko makes it 300. BB calls. Flop is 3,6,9r. Checked back. Turn is 5. Villain bets 300. Hero calls. River is J. Villain bets 500. Hero calls again. My reasoning: 1)villain is most aggressive guy at table, 2)Most (live) players suck at thin value bets. If he's representing something on turn, river couldn't have helped him and he would be very content to check down a mediocre hand against preflop raise from tight player who stuck around after turn. So he either has a monster or air and as he's shown himself to be very aggressive, chance for latter is sufficiently high given pot odds for me to call. Thoughts?

[Cornell Fiji]

I sometimes play it this way.

C-betting the flop and folding the turn are also acceptable but against an aggro player who has no qualms about check-raising the flop with air because "he put you on AK" this is a good line.

Be careful about your read though: Most aggressive player at the table =/= can not make thin value bets. I agree that most live players don't make enough thin value bets but the most aggressive guy at the table is probably capable of doing so. Also, be wary of the fact that the villain bet so small on the turn and river. Betting less than half the pot on the turn is often indicative of a little piece and the 500 chip river bet (~1/3 pot) could definitely be a blocking bet. Of course, if you have been paying attention to the villains bet sizing in previous hands then this could drastically alter your read.

[furfur]

Thanks for the reply. I guess I didn't consider the possibility of block bet. From his perspective, would he feel the need to block bet against a tight player who took such a passive line in the hand?

[Mench]

I bet flop and give up. I think his line is exactly a piece that bets small on the turn and is blocking the river. Though he might be making a thin value bet, I doubt he knows that.

[furfur]

based on what is this 'exactly' his line?