[betgo]

[ QUOTE ]
There's probably no simple, effective, and always-correct way of playing that situation but check-calling off all your chips is definitely one of the worst ways of doing it.

My options would've been to either check-raise the flop all-in, or cont. bet it. Either/or, opponent dependent.

Kirk

[/ QUOTE ]

In this case, I could have probably taken it if I bet the flop solidly, and my opponent wouldn't have hit a 2-outer.

However, I am not sure I see the advantage of playing it more aggressively. The reason I check/called was that if villain didn't have an ace, he would probably not call my bets. I figured I would give him a chance to bet if he was behind. If he was ahead, I wouldn't gain much by betting. I didn't see that much danger of being drawn out. I am not saying it was the best approach, but there was a purpose to it. Check/calling me look bad, but it isn't always best to be the aggressor.

I was puzzled by villain checking behind on the flop and betting aggressively on the turn and river. Maybe I should have folded.

Preflop, I was concered the small raise looked like a big pair. Maybe I should have raised to 4xBB rather than 3xBB. Pushing might not be terrible, as it might look like a steal, and the pot is reasonably big, so it is not terrible if I am not called. I usually don't like small "please call me" raises with big pairs, and I think I may not play that way so much in the future.