[oreogod]

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Ok I'll try. If someone has a 9, we are drawing dead, and we will surely hear from them on the turn, so its an easy fold if raised. If nobody has a 9, there just isn't that much to fear, sometimes they will have a pocket pair that they are weakly calling down with, and sometimes they have a weird hand with a 4 or now an 8 in it. But the cards we fear the most (non Ace or Queen facecards) are nowhere to be found, and everyone always chases on the flop with their overcards etc because that is an ugly flop and they don't think you have anything either.

Betting the turn allows us to: possibly (though usually not) get a better hand to fold, like a small pair that now gives up thinking you must have an overpair to keep betting, or maybe a 4 that just gets scared. It also allows us to get a free showdown if there is some chance our AQ high is best (if bet into on the river its an easy fold). Finally if we improve on the river we can keep betting like we have been naturally and gain extra bets.

Here is the important thing, if we DO by some chance have the best hand, we would love someone to fold any hand that has live outs against us. The pot is so big giving them a free card here and letting them catch a pair on the river would just be awful.

I'm telling you guys, start with the mentality that your opponents never have anything and then adjust as they present evidence that they do. Its much more fun, optimistic, confident, and profitable than assuming they always have you beat.

-DeathDonkey

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Also, use numbers. Count the combinations of hands. Makes things much brighter.

Bet the flop, Bet the turn, Check the river. Simple.

And seriously, raise preflop. You equity is huge, punish limpers for the mistake of limping with trash...your preflop expectation outweighs your postflop expectation here. IT IS A HUGE HUGE MISTAKE TO LIMP HERE.