AJo misses the flop

[wuwei]

Here's a very unsexy hand, but it's a situation that comes up all the time.

The CO is your typical calling station. I'm not positive, but I think his fold button is actually grayed out on the flop and unclickable. He does occasionally fold on the turn, however. I was also pretty sure that he wouldn't bet the flop unless he caught a good piece of it. The SB was pretty tight, don't recall much about the BB.

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (10 handed) converter (http://www.selachian.com/tools/bisonconverter/hhconverter.cgi)

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with J/images/graemlins/spade.gif, A/images/graemlins/diamond.gif.
<font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises</font>, <font color="#666666">4 folds</font>, CO calls, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, SB calls, BB calls.

Flop: (8 SB) 4/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, 9/images/graemlins/spade.gif, 7/images/graemlins/club.gif <font color="#0000FF">(4 players)</font>
SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks, CO checks.

Turn: (4 BB) T/images/graemlins/heart.gif <font color="#0000FF">(4 players)</font>
SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks, CO checks.

River: (4 BB) 6/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="#0000FF">(4 players)</font>
SB checks, <font color="#CC3333">BB bets</font>, Hero folds, CO folds, SB folds.

Final Pot: 5 BB

[Kenshin]

I think you should take a shot at this turn. You have position and the likely best hand. Additionally, you want to situate yourself to check down the river unimproved. The line you took seems to smack of weakness (I am not assessing your play in general).

Kenshin

Tangent: all my advice of late oddly consists of saying "bet the turn"

[Withen]

I wouldn't raise AJo preflop UTG+1. If they were suited, yes. If I were in MP and later, yes. Unsuited and in early position, I would just call. Unless this is a VERY loose game (6-8 people to the flop), which I rarely, if ever, see at 2/4, just call.

I am paraphrasing directly out of SSHE,

[GrunchCan]

Bet the flop, else you squander all the fold equity you created preflop.

[wuwei]

[ QUOTE ]
Bet the flop, else you squander all the fold equity you created preflop.

[/ QUOTE ]

How much fold equity does one typically have at Party 2/4 against 3 opponents? And how useful is a flop bet here when I'm pretty sure the guy I'd like to fold the most isn't going anywhere?

If I had felt the CO was likely to fold to my flop bet if he had missed, I would have bet the turn to buy myself some position and reevaluate things on the turn. With my read, I thought checking was the right play.