Come laugh at my no-limit play
 

Perhaps I'm violating netiquette by cross-posting, not sure, but I'd much appreciate some more opinions on this hand. This is the kind of NL hand that drives me batty:

AQ top pair of Q, straight/flush turn card

Re: Come laugh at my no-limit play
 

I was going to post a reply in SSNL, but I'll post it here since I think (like you since you posted it here) it will be helpful to beginners. Your flop raise was good in that it priced out any draws.

On the turn, you are a short stack with TPTK on a three flush board. Your stack is equal to the current pot. Since you gave villain incorrect odds to call your flop bet with a draw you should push it in here. I think this is Short Stack 101.

If you had a bigger stack you could have better protected your hand by making a pot-sized turn bet and having 100bb behind will make villain think twice before getting out of line.

You have a hand that you want to showdown as cheaply as possible (after that turn), but since your stack is limited it has to go in.

Re: Come laugh at my no-limit play
 

could the action of the villian's raise on the flop have been based on sklansky's idea of semi-bluff raising? I have just started reading "theory of poker", and this seems to me, as a noob, to be a likely candidate?

villain calls hero's pre-flop raise w/suited connectors, 2 club paint, something like that? villain hits club draw on flop, hero bets top pair, villain raises on semi-bluff and hits club draw on turn. villain then checks his nuts, which seems to be a standard play to make hero bet top pair harder?

in this situation, I would also likely check, and consider laying down top pair to a river bet. right? wrong? please explain.

Re: Come laugh at my no-limit play
 

Your theory is sound, but hero's stack size in relation to the pot makes it a push or fold situation. With deeper stacks, hero has to be leery of the made flush and should either fold to a turn re-raise or check down the river.

Re: Come laugh at my no-limit play
 

[ QUOTE ]
villain calls hero's pre-flop raise w/suited connectors, 2 club paint, something like that? villain hits club draw on flop, hero bets top pair, villain raises on semi-bluff and hits club draw on turn. villain then checks his nuts, which seems to be a standard play to make hero bet top pair harder?

[/ QUOTE ]
You seem to be misreading the hand history. The flop was bet by Villain and raised by Hero. Also, Villain had nowhere near the nuts on the turn.