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well lets assume you have just sat down and have absolutely no read on villain.

a situation that keeps coming up is if the board is QQTJ for example when I hold AK and villain called my raise after limping.

I then usually get check-raised all in (or close enough) on the turn and call hoping they have KQ,AQ, or 9T but keep seeing boats.

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As a general rule, don't go broke with a flush or straight when the board is paired. It all depends, of course. If the guy is a maniac and the board is something like 6-7-8-2-2 and you have 9-10, this is a safer hand. Though I'm still not sure I want to go broke here.

On the parituclar hand that you mentioned above, I think you have to ask yourself what hands he would push all-in on this board. You raised preflop, so certainly he must be afraid of A-K. But he pushed anyway, so I think it's an easy fold.

Like I said, as a general rule I don't like to go broke in these situations. Most people aren't going to go crazy with trips when there's a possible straight or flush on board, so if they're eager to put a lot of money in the pot you just have to give them credit for it--without a read, at least. Obviously, if you're getting 10:1 on your money or somehting I would call.

But you just have to be willing to laydown a strong hand when someone is representing a bigger hand. I think that makes the difference between a breakeven or slightly winning player and someone who crushes SSNL.

By the way, you should expect to fold the best hand sometimes. But it doesn't reall matter. If you're facing an all-in bet 10 times and you actually have the best hand 3-4 times that's great. But the other 6-7 times, it costs you your whole stack. So you can fold the best hand close to half the time and still be saving yourself a lot of money over the long run.