Knowing What Lines to take OOP

In a lot of my posts I typically ask what line I should take, and it seems like I'm having that question way too much. As a tournament player, I didn't really have to worry about too much besides preflop and flop play. Now that I'm playing deepstacked holdem, I find myself clueless when everything in a tournament always seemed automatic.

The most confusion is when I flop top pair out of position in a multiway pot. If I check/call I dont really gain much information about my opponents hands. If I lead and get calls, I dont know where I stand and ususally have to act on an ugly looking turn card, not knowing whether to check/call, lead again, or check/fold.

Basically what I'm asking is for the positives and negatives of different lines [check/calling, check/raising, check/calling then leading the turn, etc] and how you know what lines to use for specific situations.


For example, here's a hand where I had NO IDEA what to do. I still dont know why I did what I did and if it was correct.

Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $0.25/$0.50
9 players
Converter

Stack sizes:
UTG: $47.15
UTG+1: $13.05
MP1: $59.50
MP2: $45.70
MP3: $76.65
CO: $53.45
Button: $14.75
Hero: $71.55
BB: $9.25

Pre-flop: (9 players) Hero is SB with K Q
UTG folds, UTG+1 calls, MP1 calls, MP2 calls, MP3 calls, 2 folds, Hero calls, BB checks.

Flop: Q 9 T ($3, 6 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, UTG+1 checks, MP1 checks, MP2 bets $2, MP3 folds, Hero calls, 3 folds.

Turn: 3 ($7, 2 players)
Hero checks, MP2 bets $5, Hero calls.

River: 3 ($17, 2 players)
Hero bets $8, MP2 calls.

Results:
Final pot: $33

we probably need a sticky post on such things

I like leading that flop even OOP. I find that at low stakes a bunch of people will call with draws/crappy TPs to make it worthwhile. Obv, in a situation like this, you need to dump if raised. But you have TPGK+GS, so a 3/4 pot lead would be my line.

what about in a broader perspective, ie.

when playing oop w/ TP in a multiway pot...

positives and negatives of leading?

positives and negatives of check/calling

river decisions: blocking bet or check/call?

which lines work best for different flop textures/opponent playing styles?


difficult questions but pretty important i think

I don't like betting that flop OOP. There's too many scare cards for this bet to be +EV in my opinion. Too many times you'll either be bluffed by position raises/calls or draws hitting.