$2 NLHE Full Ring: HU pot, are we barreling the turn with middle pair when check called on flop ?

$2 NLHE Full Ring: HU pot, are we barreling the turn with middle pair when check called on flop ?

Slightly confused about this spot, when I read hands on forums alot of people talk about protecting their hand, In general do we want to be protecting our hand in HU pots ? or is this more for multi-way pots? In this spot should we be betting turn after we were called on the flop with our middle pair? I suppose villain could hold draws on the flop that he called with but when we get called with our middle pair doesn't this decrease our equity since we will be called by a range of draws, top pairs etc.whereas when we check flop villain has his whole range on the turn keeping his range wide and our equity good? Are we happy betting this flop or was checking best? what do you think about this hand? thanks to all who reply.

pokerstars, Hold'em No Limit - $0.01/$0.02 - 9 players
Hand delivered by Upswing Poker

UTG: $2.75 (138 bb)
UTG+1 (Hero): $3.99 (200 bb)
MP: $0.96 (48 bb)
MP+1: $0.78 (39 bb)
LP: $2.30 (115 bb)
CO: $4.00 (200 bb)
BU: $1.93 (97 bb)
SB: $1.32 (66 bb)
BB: $1.62 (81 bb)

Pre-Flop: ($0.03) Hero is UTG+1 with 9♠ 8♠
1 fold, Hero raises to $0.06, 2 players fold, LP calls $0.06, 4 players fold

Flop: ($0.15) 2♥ Q♣ 9♥ (2 players)
Hero bets $0.06, LP calls $0.06

Turn: ($0.27) 7♦ (2 players)
Hero checks, LP checks

River: ($0.27) K♦ (2 players)
Hero checks, LP bets $0.10, Hero calls $0.10

Preflop
With 7 players left to act behind, 98s is not strong enough to open. Its not the biggest mistake in the world, and certain table dynamics might justify it. But in general you are losing some fractions of a big blind every time you do this. The issue is, there are way to many players, who can take position on you. Which is exactly, what happened.

Flop
Its kind of a close spot. But out of position you should look to do a lot of checking, and this hand would be a perfect candidate for that. It allow Villain to bluff, and sometimes you can get lucky and pick up equity on the turn. When you bet, it is for value, and it is very thin to be honest. If he has a Q, you are behind, and everything else, that call, has excellent equity plus position.

Turn
If you fire multible barrels, it is definitely getting to thin, so checking is the best play. You are very happy, he checked behind.

River
Not the best card for you. JT got there, and also some hands like KJ and KT of hearts. Checking is the best play, but when he bet this small, you kind of have to call. Especially when your flop bet was also small, he can still have a lot of air, that he is trying to buy the pot with for a cheap price. If he had the best hand, you lost a fairly small pot, and the issue was really preflop. Just dumping it and not getting involved from early position would have saved the money.

thank you, I agree I could have folded the hand Pre-Flop but I decided to play it as you said table dynamics and it is on a GTO UTG-RFI.

For some reason this hand really confused me, on one hand on the flop we have the range and nut advantage, we have more combos of the big PP and AK,AQ, but villain should connect fairly well with this board so maybe we should have bet larger on the flop, on the turn after we are called on flop we should maybe continue betting since our range looks so strong? and not too much should have changed on the turn. The problem is I don't know if 2NL somewhat unknown players are capable of folding middle pairs, top pair bad kicker etc. or if they are thinking players enough to know I should have better hands than them.

I feel, you are massively overthinking it. At 2NL most players are really bad, and there is absolutely no need to try to be balanced by doing things like including suited connectors in an EP opening range. What will happen is, some dude will call behind you with whatever, because he is just there to have fun, and he have no clue, what he is doing. Most of the time you will miss completely or flop second pair, and you wont have any plan for, how the heck you are ever going to make money from that situation. So just fold and wait for a hand, which you can play confidently for value.

Your game reasoning is correct, but in NL2 players generally play with hands and not with ranges. I could tell you that the best opener for this texture is a range with Kh-8 because it allows more bluffs in the V range, but it won't do you much good for this stake.
Since you call the river call it's probably a balanced EV if you suspect LP is too open.
Greetings.