$100 NL multi on Party

[curtains]

The blinds are 25-50 and you have 850 in chips. You have AQo 2 off the button. It's folded to you and you raise to 150, and the cutoff calls (they have about 5000+ in chips). Everyone else folds. The flop comes 653 rainbow, what's your plan (375 in the pot)?

[woodguy]

Normal continuation bet (~250)

Done with the hand if that doesn't win it, or I don't improve on the turn if called.

Regards,
Woodguy

[curtains]

The reason I don't like this play is that it's now costing me 450 to call if my opponent moves allin. Assuming they have something like 88, I'm getting nearly the exact right odds to make this call. If they are bluffing I'm making a huge disaster by folding to a raise.

I hate to put this much of my stack in and then fold when I'm actually getting proper pot odds to make a call. AQ will beat 88 25% of the time on this board, and meanwhile there is 1325 in the pot and it costs me 450 to call.

[curtains]

To be more precise, if I bet 250 and my opponent moves allin, whenever I call his raise for my last 450, I will average a return of 438 if my opponent is holding 88.

I don't want to voluntarily put myself in a position where it's this close, especially since there is always a chance my opponent is just bluffing with somehting like KQ, AT. People online definitely do bluff here.

[Benoit]

With only the blinds and the button left to act, there's a good chance you have the best hand. Being low on chips means you might as well go all in and maybe just pick up the blinds to survive another round.

Once on the flop, a decent continuation bet would probably make you pot committed, so you might as well go all in and put the hard decision to the button. This might actually be a value bet, but if he's slightly ahead, this might get him to fold as well.