AQo twice? slow play top two pair in either?

[swatkaizen]

I just had two recent hands where I picked up AQo in both.

1) I raised 4 limpers from late position. Flop came AQx, 2 suited. They checked to me. I bet. They all fold.

2) From the BB, I raised one early and one middle limper. Flop also came AQx, 2 suited. I bet out. They fold.

The first one I didn't want to slowplay a flush draw and thought a bet from late position from the the PFR would be expected.

The second I considered slowplaying. Would anyone else have?

Anyone have a rule of thumb for when to slowplay top two pair ... when the pot is small and when few people? How small? How few people? How scary a board?

[toss]

The only time you would slowplay is when your hand is extremely strong and you feel that passing up the EV on the flop will gain you mean EV on later streets by means of deception. Soooo almost like never.

[mtdoak]

Both are clear value bets IMHO. Yes, you have a strong hand, but when they are going to call anyways, giving a free card is a disaster. Bet out and hope someone has something like a lower two pair.

[ihardlyknowher]

I would bet out both of these. Any raised pot with 3 players is worth taking down, especially with a 2 flush on the board. No free cards.

If I were heads up with top two in an unraised pot, I might slowplay against an aggressive opponent who would try to take the pot away from me.

[Stack]

You played both hands perfectly. Top pair is really no monster to slowplay. Expect to lose many of them if they are played to the river (of course, they're still very profitable), so you're results were not that bad.

There is no rule of thumb. Every hand is different. I'm sure you can find several hands a week in these forums that look like the hands you posted. Look for them, find the differenced between them, and participate.