[Aaron W.]

[ QUOTE ]
I have problems with this kind of situation. Villain is clearly tight preflop, but hasn't played enough hands postflop for me to have a good postflop read on him. I have him pegged as tight-weak but I don't have a lot of confidence in the read. The problem in this hand is that I don't know if he's making a move on me or not.

[/ QUOTE ]

I would go slow the first time he does this. Call a flop bet, fold the turn UI. If I haven't seen him play games with anyone else postflop, why should I believe he's starting to play games now? And weak-tight players might be willing to bet a ragged flop, but have a tougher time betting the turn if they have nothing.

If it happens again, then you can start to play back at him (raise the flop, or wait until the turn to raise, or maybe just call-call-call if you don't think he'll fold to a raise but will keep betting blanks -- watch him play in other hands to see which might be best).

I have the same ego problem sometimes in heads up situations. I think everybody is out to make a fool of me (whether they show it or not), and I want to defend my playing ability by outplaying them. That just leads to costly mistakes. The pot isn't that large, your chances of having the best hand are somewhat dubious (the first time you see him do this, anyway). There's nothing wrong with just letting it go.