Blind Defense: Bluffing on flops with an Ace?

[sammy_g]

Here is a problem I was thinking about earlier today:

Say a reasonably aggressive button open raises, SB folds, and you call in BB with Q [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 9 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]. Button generally plays well and is capable of laying down a hand. Flop comes A [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 7 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 2 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]. My typical line here is check/fold, but I'm starting to wonder if it might be a serious error to never make a play at the pot. Button's range is pretty wide. He might have JTo or K6s or 44. This is a bad flop for most of his hands.

What % of the time should I bluff at this? What is the best line? Check/raise? Check/call, bet? Check/call, check/raise? Donk betting the flop?

I suppose we could use game theory to determine the optimal bluffing frequency, but I don't know the technique. Also the optimal strategy might not be as good an exploitative strategy against most opponents.

One other wrinkle: When I hold Ace-rag here, I check/call, check/call, bet. An observant opponent will see I play Ace-rag this way and know I don't have an Ace when I check-raise. Does this mean I should check-raise Ace-rag sometimes to balance it with my bluffs?

My HU play and blind defense really needs some work, and I struggle in these spots. I hope this post generates some discussion as I think learning to play situations like this well is critical to beating tougher games.