[Shillx]

Sorry that I have taken so long to reply. I see that it has been a good topic to discuss and I find this hand very interesting as well. Here are my thoughts....

Flop call: When the villian raises, I have no idea if he is a good player or not. If he is a bad player, I am probably beat at this point. If he is a good player, he might be on [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]'s or middle pair (or nothing) if he is floating or a bigger jack so again it makes sense to just call here. If I had AJ I would obviously make it 3-bets since I have to think my hand is best no matter who my opponent is.

Turn: A good player should be able to put me on trips here. Of course I won't always have trips, but I would never bet out again with something like AA or KK. If I happen to have AA in this spot, I should check/call since I'm either drawing to 2 outs or I most likely have my villian drawing to 2 outs. Of course I can also have a hand like TT here or even AK [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] so it isn't like I will always have a boss hand here. The problem with checking IMO is that I need to check/call to prevent blowing the opponent off a hand that is drawing dead. The danger of checking is that the villian checks behind when he is drawing to a straight, flush or something else in this big pot.

Also (edit): When the next jack comes it is far less likely that the villian has one (more merit to him raising with a hand that wants a free card). I am of course betting to get 3-bets in if he does want to raise me. The fact that a good player might raise me again with AQ [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] means [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] for me (again recall the last hand I posted).

Final: The villian was a 2+2er and 3-bet me on the river. I called (this was a mistake) and he showed me J [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 9 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] for the stone nuts. I feel like up until I called the 3-bet this hand was played perfectly postflop by both of us (but it was VERY tough to put him on a hand here no matter what type of player he is). Notice how he just called with trips on the turn (remember that last hand I posted?) to keep me from folding something like TT or AA. Remember that he didn't know who I was, so he had to assume that I could be betting a hand that was in a WA/WB spot. I obviously check (intention of raising) on the river to see if he will bluff a busted [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] draw since that is a possible hand. He probably doesn't have middle pair after he calls turn since he is drawing thin/dead against my range of hands. He might raise the turn to get me to fold something better then mid-pair, but he probably isn't calling there with a hand that will payoff on a river "blank".

Brad