AJo from UTG

[LowDown22]

CO seems like decent player for the few orbits I've been at table. Haven't seen him raise preflop yet.

Table was respecting my raises for the most part, so raising from UTG would likely make this 2 or 3 handed.

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (9 handed)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], J[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].
<font color="CC3333">Hero raises</font>, UTG+1 folds, MP1 folds, MP2 folds, MP3 folds, <font color="CC3333">CO 3-bets</font>, Button folds, SB folds, BB folds, Hero calls.

Flop: (7.50 SB) 8[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], 9[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>
Hero checks, <font color="CC3333">CO bets</font>, <font color="CC3333">Hero raises</font>, <font color="CC3333">CO 3-bets</font>, Hero calls.

Turn: (6.75 BB) 4[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>
Hero checks, <font color="CC3333">CO bets</font>, ....??

Should I call down here or fold? This may be fairly standard, but just want some opinions.
What about the flop checkraise? Should I just bet out instead?
All comments appreciated.

[Rico Suave]

Lowdown:

The typical line I would take in this situation is check call, check call, and then bet (or check call,depending on just how aggressive this guy is).

--Rico

[LowDown22]

Ok, so you just want to get a cheap showdown then right?

My thought was I'd try to figure out on the flop if he had AA, AK, AQ. Checkraising seemed to be the best way to show some strength and test him. If I got 3 bet on the flop, which I did, then I assume I'm behind to one of the hands I listed and can fold without improvement on the turn. So I folded the turn.

[Fat Nicky]

These situations suck. You hate folding top pair here, but what are you really beating here after getting 3-bet on the flop. On the other hand, you need to have the best hand around 1 time out of 5 here if you decide to call this down for this to be +EV. Based on the way you played the hand, I hate calling it down, but you might have to.

BTW, I'd bet out this flop, if raise, i'm check/calling from there.

[spamuell]

The problem with your line is that your opponent has to be aggressive enough that they will usually 3-bet the flop with a bigger ace (or better) and only a bigger ace but passive enough that there's no point checking to them because they won't bet the flop and/or turn if you check to them with JJ-KK or loose enough that they won't fold these hands to a check-raise.

What happens a lot of the time when you check-raise is they call and then call your subsuquent bets and show AQ/AK (and it turns out that this passive play coincidentally is the best play) or they fold JJ-KK where they would have bet the flop and often the turn with it and called your river bet.

So if you can be sure that your opponent is going to 3-bet with a big ace here but not KK, take your line. Against the usual passive opponents or very aggressive opponents, it's best to check-call, check-call, bet-fold/call (depending on opponent) because this allows them to fire away when behind where they would have folded to lots of aggression or it means you less than you otherwise would have.

[Rico Suave]

lowdown:

For 1 BB more than you spent, you can get to showdown and get a chance to improve, with zero chance of your read being wrong. Furthermore, your flop aggression is likely to fold off KK, QQ, TT, etc, and so you make the minimum when you are ahead.

--Rico

[LowDown22]

Thank you all for the helpful responses. I now see why the checkraise was a bad idea. I have much to learn....