Standard AK line?

[Joefitz]

I sat down at the party NL25 for a little while, and this hand came up. The reraise preflop seems like the best way to play that part of the hand, but I'm a very poor hold'em player. On this kind of flop, should I be making a continuation bet, or is it better to check, since that would represent trip jacks much more reasonably than a bet? When the villain pushes here, I autofolded due to having no pair and no draw (as well as it's possibly I'm drawing ultra thin to suck out against trips). I still think that folding has to be right, and I don't have much, if any, doubt. However, when I thought about the hand afterward and tried to assign him a hand (something that perhaps I should have done while I was being put to the decision) I was having a hard time with it.

If he flopped the jacks that he was certainly trying to convey that he held, I would think that the vast majority of players would just smoothcall my flop bet. The board is two-suited, but is over-raising the pot that much just trying to prevent the flush draw? So AJ & KJ are not so likely I think. If he had a big overpair, QQ+, he may have re-re-raised preflop hoping to get all-in, but maybe not with the queens? Having no reads makes assigning this guy a hand tough for me. Also, had he held an overpair, I would still think that he would raise a more standard amount to stop the flush or prevent me from drawing with precisely the hand I held. I can't see him acting so strongly with a three, or a middle pocket pair either. Anyway, is my line okay?

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $ Hero (10 handed) converter (http://www.selachian.com/tools/bisonconverter/hhconverter.cgi)

MP3 ($8.80)
CO ($3.60)
Button ($20.35)
SB ($9.35)
Hero ($24.40)
UTG ($33.79)
UTG+1 ($13.45)
UTG+2 ($24.50)
MP1 ($23.90)
MP2 ($24.25)

Preflop: Hero is BB with A/images/graemlins/heart.gif, K/images/graemlins/spade.gif. SB posts a blind of $0.10.
<font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, <font color="#CC3333">UTG+2 raises to $0.75</font>, <font color="#666666">4 folds</font>, Button calls $0.75, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to $2.00</font>, UTG+2 calls $1.25, Button calls $1.25.

Flop: ($6.10) J/images/graemlins/heart.gif, J/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, 3/images/graemlins/diamond.gif <font color="#0000FF">(3 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">Hero bets $3</font>, <font color="#CC3333">UTG+2 is all-in $22.50</font>, Button folds, Hero folds.

Final Pot: $9.10 <font color="red"> </font>

in multiway pots over cards lose value. the more people in the hand, the greater the chances of someone catching a piece of the flop. however, in this hand, you are only facing two other players, and so, i believe a continuation bet to be the correct play. he is obviously representing the set, and with such a huge reraise, i don't see anyway you can justify calling this hand with two overs and no draw barring some sort of read.

preflop play sounds good to me. you're out of position and unsuited. you want to weed out lesser drawing hands and play heads up or against two players max. your reraise accomplished these two goals.

the only other read available to you is how others look at your play. for example, if you only raised to $2 with aa, kk, or ak, it would be incorrect for players to call you with qq or lower. the probability of hitting either aa or kk is .45% while the probability of hitting ak is 1.2%. so, while the odds are approx. 4 to 3 in favor of you holding ak rather than aa or kk, the queens are dominated by your higher pair and only a slight favorite to beat ak. thus, given such a read, it is -ev to call with anything other than aa, kk or ak.

hope this helps, but i'm a beginner as well so take it with a grain of salt.