Vegas Trip Post #3: Outplaying tight opponents post-flop

[DrewOnTilt]

Post #3 from my Vegas trip.

Unusually tight $4-$8 game, with only 2-3 people seeing the flop and only about half of the hands going to showdown.

I've been folding for 45 minutes, and my table image is ultra-tight. I decide after folding for the zillionth time that if the next hand brings me anything that even remotely resembles something playable, I'm going to play it and out-play whoever sees the flop with me. I'll have the button, and any well-timed bet or raise is likely to win me the pot if the flop is not too threatening.

Here we go:
Hero has the button with J /images/graemlins/spade.gif4 /images/graemlins/spade.gif
3 folds, 1 caller, 3 folds, Hero calls, SB folds, BB checks

Only now I get the miracle flop:
J /images/graemlins/club.gif 9 /images/graemlins/heart.gif4 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif

BB bets, 1 fold, Hero ???

I want to extract maximum value here. The board is pretty ugly. I don't have much of a read on BB since he only sat down 10 minutes or so earlier, but he has thus far played weak-tight like the rest of the table.

Should I raise here or smoothcall and go for the raise on the turn?

[Michael Davis]

Your strategy of seeing a lot of flops with semi-garbage and pounding postflop is a very good one in games like the one you describe. Until you have to turn over A5o or something in a showdown, then usually they stop letting you do this.

-Michael