defending against continuation bet

Ok guys I was playing in a live tourney the other weekend and I was on the button the blinds were about 1-200 and I have around 9000 behind me. I get dealt A-7o there is an ep raiser to 400 it gets folded round to me and I call (I wanted to play pos' and I did have a middling hand and I had'nt played a hand for ages) anyway the flop comes 10 high with a 7 which means I have hit middle pair. The ep raiser makes it 700 to go and I call hoping to take it off him on the turn, anyway there is another ten and he bets out 1200. There was no flushes on the board and do I think he has got the other ten well, prob' not seeing there is two already out there but I fold to his bet.
I suppose he could have had an over pair but I just wonder what other members think about defending against cb's? Thanks for your help

In my opinion you should have reraised his c-bet on the flop just to see where you were in the hand

with you just calling he may well have figured you did'nt have the 10 and thought he could push you off with AK or something like that

inti

Had he cbet before? Did any such hands get to showdown? Had he barrelled the flop then check-folded the turn? Had he been looking laggy? With nothing to go on, I'm inclined to give people credit for a hand the first time or two anyway?

If you have position on the pf-raiser, you can float the c-bet if you suspect he did not actually hit the flop. This infers you call the flop bet. If he really has nothing, often he will check the turn, which is when you put a bet in, which will then be really hard for him to call.

If he does barrel the turn again, he usually has something better than middle pair.
You really don't have to reraise the flop for this information. In fact, raising solely to find out where you're at is generally a bad move.

I like the answers guys but I'm inclined to agree with bigthing...I would have been more inclined to raise if he had checked the turn, i've just been reading Harrington's book on this and he advises the same i.e.most players don't raise three times on the bounce if they havn't got something or have not hit the flop, I was really looking to hit and ace with my seven or get a flukey trips or he checks the turn...three ways to win in my eyes. Just out of interest I would like to play the button more often than I do, I don't mind raising with any two cards if I'm first in but if there have been either callers or raisers what would your starting hand requirements be if in position? Cheers...

So if you called the flop, to take it away, the turn comes a good card(less of a chance he holds a ten) why did you not raise-im lost. This seems like the perfect time. if he held JJ hed be hard press to call a raise- i mean what else could you have with a no draw board you could have trips or a boats, and he knows if he calls a rr, hes probably be facing an allin on river= good fold equity. If he moves over you to the rr- than u were beat & no reason to worry, move on.

if the blinds are 100/200 and he raise to 400, thats a min raise, i would make that 1000 preflop, lets see what he does now. other than that you can also reraise the flop to find out where you are. the way you played it, on the turn i would call one more street, odds are he is double barreling here, or you could also reraise the turn.

personally i would double barrel if you acted as you did vs me, so i would fire with air on the turn, so i doubt BigThing is right, plus the guy bet only 1200 in a 2200 pot, half of it, which looks weak and that makes me want to bet so bad