As it turns out...though the rumours are that Empire is super tight nowadays...these rumours are completely unfounded from what I have discovered. It's damn near as fishy as Pacific so far. Unfortunately they don't seem to be calling down my great hands as much and only sucking out - negative variance be damned :P

Anyhow, I didn't see an overpair going at it like this preflop, nor TT - but I have seen a few wacky hands where 55 or 66 just happen to be there, as unlikely as that is. And of course top pair flush draw aggro player would go at it this way.

I didn't like my odds here, and I made what I considered to be not such a bad laydown in most general situations.

Villain showed KT offsuit and I quickly noted him for vastly overplaying one pair hands in a limped pot before he bailed.

Thanks for the positively reinforcing comments all.