1)3bb is not enough, typically live players that limp off this stack depth will be very sticky preflop and relatively inelastic to bet sizing. 5bb seems like a good size to me.

2)This is a terrible hand to consider leading on. A cbet will simply fold out hands that you beat and get calls from hands that beat you. When you are beat you have very little equity vs them and when you are ahead they have very little equity vs you. You play the flop well by check folding.

3)Vs passive players (assumed from the preflop limp-call and the fact it’s a $60 live tourney), I would be constructing a very value heavy check-raise range and the only bluffs I would have would be monster draws. This is because they will only be betting with relatively strong holdings and will rarely fold.

With this preflop action, your hand, and this flop it’s going to be hard to win the hand. Villains limp calling range is likely Ace heavy, his range becomes more Ace heavy when he bets the flop. To try and force the pot your way will likely just lose you money.

Shwinn said 

I think I made a mistake and folded to a weak Ace, or a draw. In these situations I am ahead 50% of the time

Given the range you’ve assigned villain and the possible draws you’ve given him, this statement is wrong. Folding would not be a mistake and you would not be ahead 50% of the time. Download Equilab, it’s free and will help with evaluating range vs hand situations.

Turbulence said 

I am cbetting this flop 80+% of the time. As the preflop aggressor you only need to bet 40-50% of the pot to take it down. If you are called its an A or a J and when you check the turn if he checks back a) you get a free rvr card b) you might be able to consider betting for thin value against a J on the river.  

Why 80% cbet and why is QQ part of that range? Why 40-50% pot size? What does “taking the pot down” achieve and how often is that the likely outcome?

I like Kmid’s post, and think he raises a lot of valuable points, but thought I’d throw my 2 cents in there as well. 

1) As everyone else has said, especially in a live tournament you can raise much bigger pre-flop as limpers hate to fold once they’ve put chips in the pot. 5x is minimum, and you could make an argument to go to 6 or 7 if you were beinge exploitive. 

2&3) The fact that you currently have no reads makes this hand tougher to play, and makes me think similarly to Kmid about how to structure your range. Basically, in my experience people who limp call pre are not ideal candidates to bluff, unless you know they have no piece of the board. Most will not bet when checked to, unless they have a piece of the board, and may not even bet a J, as they tend to over-estimate the chances of someone else having an A. Due to this the lead does not achieve much beyond folding out what you are already beating, and putting money in the pot when you are behind. 

Basically, at a $60 live tourney this is a very reasonable way to play the hand, and apart from raising more pre, you will make EV playing the hand this way at this level. 

Turbulence said

As the preflop aggressor raising 2 limper out of position our range should look very strong and includes all big Ax combos. A cbet wins us the pot a large % of the the time on the flop (this is from experience). It also simplifies decision making on future streets if we are called, and will probably allow us to see both turn and river as a limper with a weak Ax is unlikely to bet until the river when checked to. Unless one has picked up on some live tells from our opponents I really dont see a reason to not make a cbet on what is a fairly dry board.   

A cbet will win us the pot some of the time but only when we have the best hand. When this is the case we will often win the pot without cbetting. The cbet will also lose us money when we are not ahead, in this scenario we do not lose money on the flop if we do not cbet.

The decisions will be simpler when we cbet, the reason for this is that we can be relatively certain that we are behind when called/raised. Making an unprofitable decision is not justified because it makes future decisions easier. We should be looking to make the most profitable decisions, regardless of how complex they might make future streets. Seeing both the turn and river is a small advantage when drawing to two outs, we do not hit our set often. There is also no guarantee that this line will allow us to see the turn and river, we get raised on the flop with some frequency and bet into on the turn with some frequency.

If you honestly cannot see a single reason to not cbet here, then you will probably find Andrew Brokos ‘Making Better Continuation Decisions’ video series helpful.