Defend pre, check-call flop, then take a thin river value bet with middle pair on a paired board.
Three-way on T86 rainbow, we have middle pair with an A kicker. Checking is the standard multiway line here—our hand is strong enough to continue but not strong enough to lead into two uncapped ranges. Letting MP and CO act first keeps the pot under control and avoids getting raised off our equity.
CO bets 2.5BB into 6.5BB, MP calls, and we’re getting about 2.8:1 with 14.1BB to win. Middle pair with an A kicker has solid showdown value and some improvement potential, so calling is the best option. Raising would be too ambitious multiway and folding would give up too much equity.
River pairs the T and we bet 3BB into a pot of 14.1BB. This is a thin value bet: we block some of the weaker Tx that might bluff, and our bet size is small enough that it can be interpreted as a bluff, but it’s still a reasonable way to get paid by worse Tx and random floats.