$25-$50 NL KJo in the bb

[coltrane]

I might've checked the flop.....here's why:

basically my feeling is that after you've reraised preflop and been called, your hand strength (pair of jacks with king kicker) is irrelevant.....what I mean, is that when you bet the flop you may as well be bluffing because your hand beats nothing and if you're planning on calling a flop checkraise or put in any money on any other street it's purely to pick off a bluff.....so in my experience, the best way to do that is check the flop - it often induces two streets worth of barrels from aggro players.....it's true that the ace sucks on the turn because it is a scare card for both of you, but to me the number of times an ace hits the turn is totally outweighed by the bluff-catching value of when it doesn't......

now, it's possible that I'm confusing the nature of this villain and this game....so change a few things (i.e. - villain is actually the type to call value bets with a hand worse than a pair of jacks after being reraised preflop by a tight player, or villain never bluffs on the turn, or villain never bluff check-raises, etc.) and my above statements may be incorrect.....however, if I'm understanding this typical online villain correctly, I think a flop check is a viable option......

[Paluka]

I would think that in a blind on blind situation he would be willing to call the flop with quite a few hands that don't beat a pair of jacks. If this isn't true, I'm very confused and this is why I suck at NLHE. If he had a pocket pair there below jacks how should he play it? Does he either have to reraise preflop or fold if he doesn't make a set?

[TheWorstPlayer]

It obviously depends on how you play postflop. But if you're a tough opponent and he's out of position, what you outline is essentially correct. It is just too easy for you to steal the pot in position since he can't take any heat. If he's short stacked and you're aggressive, that's one thing, but if you have decent stacks, he is better off folding when he's ahead in a small pot than he is playing a potentially large pot of position with a hand that can't even beat top pair.

FWIW, I think understanding this issue of pot control is the single largest hurdle facing limit players learning NL. There were a lot of good posts on this topic in what used to be SSNL in threads started by the poster who used to be GrunchCan (I think "The Grunch" now) who was making this transition.