I'd be tempted to shove tbh.

First off, I don't agree with the title at all. I don't think we have kicker trouble. He might, theoretically, be overlimping with AK, KQ or KJ but most people who play those hands will be raising them pre-flop in that position after a limper. So I'd call them possible - but unlikely. It's a total of 24 hand combinations that are most often raised preflop.

The pre-flop overlimp can indicate the good old 'any hand with potential' - any pair, any suited, any ace, any king, any connector or gapper - with no reads we have to consider his overlimp a pretty wide range with serious discounts only really for premium hands.

The flop raise - can mean many things. Mainly, it means one of two things: 1) I have a strong hand or 2) I know a paired flop doesn't hit people that often so I raise because I think you have nothing.

To me, he might easily have called the bigger kings on the flop. I am more tempted to consider this either a bluff or a semi-bluff. The sheer amount of hand combinations in those two options makes it imo more likely.

At some point in the hand we will need to decide whether we are willing to stack off with trips. I think the time to make that decision is here on the flop. If we call the flop bet is there any way we are folding before the showdown?

If a club comes? Well, about that. If he's on a flush draw and the 9 clubs are outs for him he has maybe 36% chance of winning the hand - so we call to let him draw to his flush draw cheaply when we have the equity advantage? Let's not forget that we can also see him hit the flush and then have us improve to a full house or quads.

Let's consider what our actions say about our hand. If we call here and lead the turn or check/call the turn are we saying anything other than beware we have a strong hand? He may be a good player or a bad player, but I'm worried here about making it easy for the opponent to play optimally against me (folding). I think we're strong enough to stack off, and I think our actions in this hand should try to maximise our chance of getting all the money in the middle. We need to take a line that looks likely to be a bluff or a weaker/wider range. I don't want to take a line that scares my opponent. And that's why I want to push.

?? Push? Well, yeah. Ok, so he may be playing short because he's nursing his buyin and people who do that are often reluctant to put their last chips in. They will sometimes call bet after bet and then fold to the one bet that will put them all-in not because they think they are beat but because they don't want to risk their 'tournament life' - or an early end to their session. People who do that will admit that it's stupid, but.... Whatever their reason, they're aware that they are bluffable. This is something we can take advantage of as well. If we shove it may look like a blatant bluff and he may look to call us with a bluff catcher - or any flush draw. The more actions we take in the hand the more clearly defined our hand is.

Also people are more inclined to call on early streets even when behind because they at least have outs.

We're an unknown - I like making small bluffs or 3bets with air when I'm an unknown because my bluffs tend to get more credit and that's fine when we want to take down a pot noone has shown an interest in. In this case our opponent has shown an interest - he's already raised after seeing the flop. For whatever reason he has indicated he wants to build a pot and I think the flop is the time to let him help us do so, while he can still think that we might just be making an overbet bluff as an unknown - our unknown image might help us appear as more bluffy. When he raises the flop I think he's more likely feeling good about the value of his hand either through outs or straight showdown - and we should exploit his mental/emotional state rather than slow down the action and give him pause to reassess where he's at.

Ask yourself this: When you play a hand how quickly do you reassess the relative and absolute hand strength of your holdings depending on the action in the hand?

I know I often end up feeling good about my hand and then calling one street too many before I realise that the bet I called was the one that told me that I was no longer good and then having to fold to the next bet after having paid the earlier one.

As long as emotions are part of me when I play I will get that "feeling good" state which takes a couple of seconds to dissipate - when the overbet appears that tells me that "feeling good" is wrong, the "feeling good" might make me call before I process the information. Especially if it appears suddenly and the small voice in the back of my head says "quick bets are often bluffs - continue feeling good".

Ok, so.. I didn't go into hand ranges that much. But I honestly think the psychology of playing against unknowns and being an unknown is a more interesting discussion.