Top Pair Good Kicker - how to play it?

My recent situation:

The shorthanded game of 5 players , I get KJs on the button. 1 limper, then folded to me, I raise 3xBB. Call by BB and limper (who is somewhat loose passive fishy draw-chaser). BB is somewhat loose preflop (which is common on $10NL tables), if he hit a piece of the flop, he calls the flop potsized bets and folds the turn if not impoverd. VERY passive play of premium hands (like limping with QQ and checking it dow to the river...bleh).

Flop KTx rainbow and BB fires with 1/2 pot bet. Limper folds and I can't put a BB on a hand, "TPTK? overpair? middle pair? top pair weaker kicker?" I raised the pot, he called. Turn blank, he bets 1/2 of pot and I minraise, he reraises and I decided to muck my hand. I feel like I shouldnt raise the turn and cut my losses on flop.

How to play top pair decent kicker? Raise the pot on the flop in order to see where I stand? If he folds I'm happy, if he goes over the top of me with reraise, I fold. What if he calls my raise? Fold to following turn bet?


How to play postflop TPGK? Maybe question is too general, all I need is some general advice about legitimate play of this type of hand, especially when I face the flop bet. Raise minimum? Raise huge? What if opp calls my raise and fires the next bet on turn? Get out of the hand?

imo, if your going to raise with position like this with mediocre, but often winning hands like KJ then you need to attack post flop as if you have a real premium hand such as AK or KK-AA.
You've hit the top pair here so i raise him back for the size of the pot. In this instance opp might think two things with that.
1) did you simply raise with position and would this guy notice if you did?Therefore are you just continuation betting or do you have the goods
2) Did you actually miss the flop with a hand like AQ or AJ even AT (only catching second pair)?
To me the bet represents that he has a king with a decent kicker, if you've run into KQ thats a touch unlucky. If he has AK i would have expected him to raise back preflop.
So generally i'd say this. If you arent going to limp KJ then come out firing hard post flop. This is the beauty of position in that you gain the information of his half pot bet. Yes its a tough read but you have to be the aggressor here. If his hand is better than yours eg set,two pair he'll come back at you or start cold calling your bets at which point you have to decide if your behind.
At 10nl he probably called your raise with a poor hand like K6 or something similar and is therefore behind.