Continuation bet with AA flopped set?

[housenuts]

villain has been fairly tight, but he just won some large pots and seems to be loosening up now.

should i make a continuation bet or slowplay here?
i bet for a couple reasons.

1) i make a continuation bet almost every other time, whether i have a hand or not. checking could be suspicious

2) if he has an ace he may raise, and if he doesn't not many cards can come that will give him a 2nd best hand he'd likely play for all his chips.

sucks to not win any more chips, but i feel i probably wouldn't have anyways. what do you do?

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t1200 (9 handed) converter

UTG (t45152)
UTG+1 (t24600)
MP1 (t44436)
MP2 (t25281)
Hero (t41195)
CO (t2642)
Button (t30475)
SB (t73598)
BB (t13785)

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img].
<font color="#666666">4 folds</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to t3600</font>, <font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, SB calls t3000, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>.

Flop: (t7200) 2[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], 3[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
SB checks, <font color="#CC3333">Hero bets t4000</font>, SB folds.

Final Pot: t11200

Results in white below: <font color="#FFFFFF">
No showdown. Hero wins t11200. </font>

[MeanGreenTT]

Not a scary board for the Set, I might check behind, giving him a chance to make a hand and fire out into you on 4th street.

Other line, bet out a smaller amount like 2400, making it look like a stabbing bet.

[Dave D]

I guess you can play this either way. Personally I don't mind giving a free card and I think you may be assuming villian is smarter than he is. I just dont think you have anything to lose by checking.

[justT]

Another option would be to make a larger than normal continuation bet. He might over-think it and decide you didn't like the Ace on the flop.

Given the size of your pre-flop raise, this is a very benign flop for you. It's a rainbow, and doubtful he's got a draw, unless he's holding 44 or 55. What do you put him on? My guess would be Ax or a PP, and since you're looking at three of the A's, it's probably a PP. It's unlikely, but if he makes a set on the turn or river, he'll probably give you some action.

A check could mean a lot of things, such as Q's/K's or a steal that you don't want to push any further, and he might get it into his head that he can represent an A. Also unlikely, but if the guy's tight, he probably isn't going to stick around with an unimproved underpair against the pre-flop raiser when an A flops.

The real question is how much attention you think the players at your table are paying. I wouldn't worry so much about him getting suspicious in this hand, because he is either going to make a 'monster' (lower set) or be done with the hand, most likely. But at an observant table, showing down top set after failing to continuation bet will probably make future continuation bets less successful. You might even consider showing the A's when Villain folds to your continuation bet, in order to encourage others to do the same in the future.

[Jason Strasser]

Bet, build big pots when you have good hands, disguise your good hands. Dont worry if he cant pay u off here.
-Jason

[ QUOTE ]
Bet, build big pots when you have good hands, disguise your good hands. Dont worry if he cant pay u off here.


[/ QUOTE ]

I like a bet here too, you said you normally make continuation bets, so I wouldn't do anything out of the ordinary here. Just my 2¢

-Chris