[Justin A]

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Easy preflop call versus LAG in MP3.

By betting the flop you got yourself raised and forced SB out. With this hand it is probably better to go for the checkraise to trap SB for multiple bets:

1. The pot is small and your pair is pretty high. Paying 2 SB to chase you is probably a big mistake on SB's part. He is unlikely to have very many outs, especially if you ignore any overcards that match overcards in MP3's hand.

2. You may be chasing MP3. In that case SB is very unlikely to beat the hand you hope to make. Any money he puts in the pot is a donation from your perspective.

Replace SB with an EP limper and the thought process reverses. Now you want to bet out so that he calls and gets raised from behind.

With SB departing from the hand you correctly went into calldown mode and let the LAG bet the best hand. Of course you don't know if the best hand he is betting is his or yours, but you hope it works out. Standard way ahead/way behind.

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I agree with everything you said except for the way ahead or way behind part.