Keep firing at the pot?

Here's a question that I think many can relate to.

Take a 1-2NL with 9 players.

Say you are in late position with a hand like AQd and raise 3-4xbb. Two early limpers call your raise. Pot is now something like 25 dollars.

Flop comes, for example, 9s 8s 3h.

The early limpers check to you. You fire out a continuation bet of 10 dollars. One guy folds, the other calls.

Turn is the 4c, not likely to be of any help to him.

He checks.

DO YOU BET OUT AGAIN?

I have had this dilemma several times. Of course, the first thing that goes through my mind is that one of the guys is playing a low PP and hit his set; 33 for example. He is now letting you keep betting into him knowing you likely have two face cards.

Still this isn't very probable. The guy could also have two face cards, but if so, why didnt he raise preflop? Or, maybe he called your big reraise with A-9 or A-8....

Most likely, and from what I've seen, guys like this are on flush/straight draws. Online, you see people play anything suited or connected hoping to catch that monster and win a huge pot.

So, back to the question, would you continue to fire out at the pot? For me, I really haven't found the answer as I have done both and have gotten burned plenty of times either way. When I do bet out on the turn, it seems as I'll get reraised with a guy with trips, when I don't the guy catches his flush/straight on the river.

I'm interested to hear how people handle this situation.

mix up your game, don't C-bet every flop just because you raised preflop.try checking behind on the flop then when he checks the turn take a stab at the pot.if he is on a still on a draw it is much later in the hand and chasers will be more apt to fold. just one example there are more. gl

This is not a great flop to cbet so I'd ch/f most of the time but if you're gonna cbet please cbet to more like $18-20, 10 is just way too small here because you give every single random draw odds to call and he's not folding a pair.

I've noticed that C-betting tends to work better when oop. In your scenario, they will have the knowledge that you will probably c-bet if given the chance, so they give you the chance for 1 of 2 reasons; They didn't hit, or they hit. In either case, from their POV, the best action is to let you bet. And they are generally right. While many will wilt to your c-bet, some will stand up and fight, always a testy situation. Knowing you are usually semi-bluffing at best in your scenario, you could try upping your c-bet 50%. Make them pay to call your bluff. In doing this tho, you should be prepared more often to abandon a second firing at the pot.

Table images play big in your scenario.

1st your preflop bet needs to account for the limpers. Normally your raise into an unopened pot will be 3x-4xBB but now the pot is inflated with 2 limpers. 3x-4xB raise here does not set the proper odds so raise it 3x-4xBB+1BB/limper. You were actually lucky not to have the blinds in the hand as they were getting super odds to play ATC.

As Zach has said your c-bet is way too weak and coupled with your weak preflop raise it's easy for your opponents to narrow your range down to A-face hands.

To fire the 2nd bullet you will need a read on the opponents left. How likely will their hand range include connectors, pocket pairs and AK. Are they calling stations that play A-rag from EP or just calling stations in general? Do they like to bluff co-ordianted boards? etc.

The dilemma is that sometime it works , sometimes it doesn't. Many times players will stay in if they made with bottom or middle pair or if they have a small pocket pair. Knowing your opponents is the best guide, and it is still variable. I suggest keeping track to see how it works when you do fire the bullet.

It depends what your read is. You can't give up on every pot where your c-bet doesn't work though. If you do this, players will pick up on it and start calling your c-bets with ATC, figuring they can bluff you out later on.