Check raising to drive out opponents
 

Situation: You are playing limit hold'em, you are in early position and have flopped top pair on a not overly drawy board. Let's say you had AT and you hit your 10 on a flop of T53 rainbow. Behind you are a couple of other players, none of them very good, and the button is a LAG.

The general opinion seems to be that one should check here, so that when the button bets you can raise and drive out some opponents. Or maybe they don't fold but do a bad call instead, which is even better.

But isn't it more +EV to come out and bet? True, you won't drive as many players out, and thus you will win the pot less often. But those players which now called and which otherwise would have folded have obviously made a bad call. Which is the whole purpose of playing winning poker. Or not?

Re: Check raising to drive out opponents
 

This really depends on a wide variety of factors. How big the pot already is and how many players are in is important. Say you limped with ATs in EP of a 10 handed game and the LAG button preflop raises and 6 people see the flop for 2 small bets. Then the flop comes T 5 3, A checkraise is probably best because the pot is already fairly large, there are many opponents, your hand is vulnerable to any face card hitting the board, and the LAG pf raiser will probably bet allowing you to check raise and protect your hand. On the other hand if you limp in EP with ATs and the weak tight CO also limps so it is three to the flop in a small pot, you should almost always bet out with TPTK. Hope this is what you were looking for.

Re: Check raising to drive out opponents
 

I forgot to express it in my post, but what I ment was that the LAG on the button might also raise if I just betted out on the flop, in which case I could make it 3 bets.

Re: Check raising to drive out opponents
 

Well then your throwing in way to many variables that all need to be handled differently. The players between you and the LAG button is important as well. I would be more inclined to just lead out because the last thing i want happening is it to get checked thru with a vulnerable hand like a10. If this is a basic low limit game anything the players between you and the button will call the one bet will probably call two cold as well so no need to be to tricky at all, just play it straight. In low limits i find theres really no need to overdue anything and play completely straightforward.