[Phoenix1010]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
If he's a huge rock I wouldn't worry about trying to get value against his one pair, I 3-bet the flop and hope he's got a set/two pair

$8? If that's your standard bet in this situation, then ok. Just keep in consinstent. I prefer minimum 2/3 pot though.

[/ QUOTE ]

Couldnt agree more. I think it's a crime not to 3-bet this flop; you do not want to give a free card with all those scare cards out there and you want to build the pot. He likes his hand, and he would likely push (or raise hard) trips and possibly 2 pair (?) if re-raised.

Don't know his hand range, but I'd say JJ, 88, 77 are very likely looking at pf action and your description of him as a rock.
Most rocks would re-raise AA, KK, QQ preflop? And if he holds one of those I assume you're not getting any more money in on the turn anyway unless he improves. Therefore might as well raise flop.

~$80 pot after flop with $400 behind each is not enough for my taste in this situation

And yeah, unless this is your standard flop bet then bet more than $8.

[/ QUOTE ]

No raise preflop, so can't reraise. This also makes JJ unlikely. Do rocks limp JJ on the button, I'm not really sure if that goes under the rock section? I think people aren't giving 87s enough consideration, but it doesn't matter much because he'll likely play that like AJ on this board. If he doesn't have a set, we don't have to worry too much about making the wrong decision later anyway since only a jack falling will potentially make him overplay a non-boat.

I think this hand is important, since these kinds of situations come up often, When you have a monster and you know your opponent has a second best hand that he will pay off with AND has a live draw that he will see to the end. Of course any money that goes into the pot when you're way ahead is in your favor, but since you know what they're drawing to you'd like to allow yourself the ability to lose the minimum when they hit and extract the maximum when they miss. This is all a matter of whether or not you think you can make up for the pot building that a flop reraise would give you if you wait until later in the hand. This is also tempered by the possibility of a scary turn card, in this case a T or 9, slowing down your action (this factor is probably canceled out by the extra value you get when your opponent doesn't have a set and pays out a bit more than if you reraise). In this spot it doesn't look like the size of the pot will be very different whether you decide to reraise the flop or check raise the turn. The only big difference is that you will be able to exploit a much larger edge by tying him to the pot with only one card to come than you would have by tying yourself to the pot with two.

Of course, if there's even a slight possibility that your opponent won't pay off a turn check raise/river lead, then you should be jamming the flop as much as possible.