odd hand, first time poster

Long time lurker, first time poster. I had an odd hand come up today at Stars 2/4 SH, and myself and a friend had quite a long discussion about it. I thought I would post it here to see what everyone thought.

UTG and UTG+1 seem to both be typical loose, terrible players. I've played perhaps twenty hands at this table with them, and they have both been in a fair number of them, all the way to the river. UTG+1 just lost a hand to me where he check-raised middle pair.

The button is 12/9/3.5 over 150 hands, no further read.

I am on the BB with Jd8d. UTG and UTG+1 call, CO folds, and the button raises. I call (wrong?). UTG and UTG+1 call.

The flop comes QcJh8h. I check, anticipating an auto-bet from the button, intending to check-raise to punish any draws UTG and UTG+1 might have (wrong?). UTG bets, UTG+1 raises, button 3-bets. I decide to cap. My rationale is this: with two pair, I'm probably ahead. I still want to punish any draws, and put more money into the pot while it seems that I still have the best hand. My plan is to bet/fold the turn.

So, thoughts? Was this a horrible play and a really clear fold, or was there value in capping?

[steaknshake925]

well if youre gonna cap the flop then i cant think of any turn that you would want to bet/fold. i mean if the turn comes a Q, T, 9 or heart im thinking about check/folding, and anything else i'd just check and call down if it's one bet to me, and if it ever comes two bets to me im probably dumping this.

i might just fold the flop tho

My rationale for betting the turn is this:

If I am beaten with a straight or flush on the turn, my bet will almost certainly be raised. In that case, I can safely fold. If my bet is simply called, then it's fairly safe to assume that I have the best hand, and I am up against flush draws/straight draws/TPTK/etc. There are some problems with this strategy - if one of my opponents has exactly QJ or Q8, I probably trap myself with my betting. QQ, JJ, or 88 may or may not raise my turn bet depending on the player and the nature of the turn card, so there might be trouble there. In general, though, the turn bet lets me know where I'm at. I certainly don't like check/folding; there are twelve bets in the pot and any number of inferior hands can bet even a completely unimproved turn.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this hand?