What's a good size bet here?

[HoldingFolding]

30+3 PP opponent seems steady so far. Was the C/R the way to go? A little bit obvious? I put him on a good pair KK/QQ, possibly AK also..

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t30 (9 handed) converter (http://www.selachian.com/tools/bisonconverter/hhconverter.cgi)

Button (t395)
SB (t1315)
BB (t1925)
UTG (t740)
Hero (t715)
MP1 (t350)
MP2 (t325)
MP3 (t745)
CO (t1490)

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with K/images/graemlins/club.gif, A/images/graemlins/diamond.gif.
<font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to t75</font>, <font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, <font color="#CC3333">MP3 raises to t200</font>, <font color="#666666">4 folds</font>, Hero calls t125.

Flop: (t445) J/images/graemlins/club.gif, A/images/graemlins/heart.gif, 9/images/graemlins/club.gif <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
Hero checks, <font color="#CC3333">MP3 bets t45</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero ?????</font>

[DasLeben]

I like the checkraise a lot. I'd probably push the flop.

[BDarch]

i'd probably raise to like 200 or 250

[DasLeben]

I was thinking about that, but you'd be giving villian some pretty damn good odds to call you. I dunno, I could be wrong (been drinking).

[spentrent]

I'd rather lead than try to check-raise this flop. Lots of yucky draws on that board that would welcome a free card. And the pot's big enough to take right now.

Lots of draws means lots of turn scare cards, giving Villain a ton of "virtual outs" to hijack this pot if you let him peel one off for free.

[spentrent]

Also I think I would have jammed this preflop. You're putting in so much of your stack to call preflop that you might as well push.

[Pepsquad]

I'm betting I'm the only person here that would suggest flat calling the ~45 flop bet. Yes, you are allowing draws to potentially catch up on the turn but in my experience, these min-bets on the ace-high flop after a HEALTHY pre-flop raise indicates an underpair or a weaker ace trying to sniff out your TPTK. Oftentimes, if you have the discipline to just call this flop it'll provoke KK, QQ, even 1010 and weaker aces to push into you on the turn.
Since I'm not folding to villain's push even if I'm beat, I might as well try provoking aggression from a weaker hand on the turn.

Pep.

[HoldingFolding]

Yes, I like this idea and I think it's what I should have done. The 45 bet was to find out if I had the ace. I bet out 250 (essentially saying 'yes') and he folded (Kings he said).

With a board like that, there's obviously a risk involved, but it could also have got me a lot more chips.

[HoldingFolding]

I don't like that idea, the reraise will often mean a solid pair, if the flop doesn't hit I can get away from it and still have 500+ chips.