should i play this top pair harder?

[ninja please]

party 1/2 game. no read on any of the relevant players.

i'm in LP and am dealt JcQc.

UTG raises, and it's folded to me. with no players in yet and against an UTG raise, this can't be a good call. but i call 2 cold. in my defense i was playing 3 tables for the first time today (usually only two) and was in another hand at the time, so i wasn't paying attention like i should have been.

folded to the blinds who both call.

flop: 4d Js Th

blinds check, UTG bets, i raise, blinds call 2 cold, UTG calls.

turn: 9s

blinds check, UTG bets. can i raise again? any big pocket pair has me beat, but he may also have AK or AQ. but i did pick up the open ended straight draw. of course he could just as easily have KQs. anyhow, with all these thoughts, i just call. so do the blinds.

river: 6d

blinds check, UTG bets, i call, SB calls, BB folds.

UTG shows AQo, and i take the pot. SB had J8.

other than the pre-flop call, which i realize should have been a fold, how was the play here? can i reraise on the turn or river? or should i be calling at all on these streets?

[elysium]

hi nin
the only issue is the pre-flop call. you apparently don't know this opponent so the call is ok-ish. if you knew him to be solid or weak tight to avg. tight, then your call isn't so good. but nin, as it is, i think the call is ok.

as far as the rest of the hand, you played it fine. you could raise the turn if you knew that the utg was weak tight or a calling station, but if you knew that, your pre-flop call would be wrong so.....you must call the turn nin. good. i'd like to hear though that you didn't have a lot of opponent knowledge about this particular opponent though because if he's anything other than weak to avg. and non-tight, you made a mistake somewhere along the way. i'm sure that you don't have a lot of info on this opponent and that therefore your play was fine.