Strange Betting Pattern...thoughts?

[tommy2]

Was playing in a 30+3 Limit on Party and experienced a betting pattern I haven't seen before. I would appreciate thoughts on how I could have played this better.

I have AQo in middle position. All fold before me, I raise, one late position and both blinds call.

Flop is: A J 7 rainbow

I check, and it checks around.

Turn is: 2

I bet, it is raised, reraised and capped. I call.

River is: 9 (no flush possibility)

I check and it checks around. One guy had A3, one had J10, and one had two rags.

I checked after the flop to get information and to potentially reraise. I wonder if I should have bet out here. I was really confused by the flop checked around, turn capped and river checked around.

Thoughts?

[AleoMagus]

I think it's obvious what happened

A3 isn't sure if his kicker is good, so he checks the flop
JT isn't sure if his pair is big enough so he checks also
You checked for all the reasons you mentioned
The rags, well... it's party

After that however, those guys both thought that their hand was good and the rags thought that nobody had anything

So, when you bet, rags tries to make a move, A3 thinks he has the only ace, and JT thinks he has the strongest pair.

Bad play on all their parts, but maybe bad on yours also. I would have bet that flop.

Where was the rags. If he's the late position (which I'm betting he is) then I understand his raise-steal attempt (even if I think it's dumb). After that he might think he's commited anyways. If he was one of the blinds then I have no idea what he was thinking

Regards,
Brad S

[Moonsugar]

Ok, I would not have probably called the turn but I have a question: Since you did call 3 on the turn why not value bet when a probable blank hits?

[tommy2]

I guess I figure that in that instance I would rather call than be reraised. Is this foolish?

[ThaSaltCracka]

why?

[Moonsugar]

I don't know if it is foolish but I don't know how a 9 can really hurt your AQ on that board. If the AQ is good enough to call 3 on the turn I think it has to be good enough to bet on the river when a 9 comes. I mean, you called 3 on the turn so you had to be pretty sure your hand was good at that time, right? Of course you would be hard pressed to call if it was capped again on the river after you bet!!!

But, like I said before, I probably would not have called the turn so what do I know? And, like Magus said, you would save yourself from this dilemna (and possible suckout) by betting the flop. Negreanu has some great posts on 'flow' on RGP, go read them they helped me a ton in limit poker.