[TNixon]

His line makes perfect sense to me with 2 pair or better, if you can assume he is a thinking player. If you played on FT, I'd say that assumption is way out of line to begin with at the $22 level, but you've made a good case for smart average villans on stars in the past, so I'll go with that. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I frequently bet a flopped 2 pair or a set just like villan has here, simply because it does look weaker than a check/call or a check/raise, and I'm more likely to get paid off by a lone ace, or even something like J9.

Reasoning: On this flop, you either have a piece or you have nothing. If you have nothing, all I'm going to get is your continuation bet, maybe 80 chips? If you have a piece, by betting out, my hand looks weaker than it is, especially since I'm also going to bet most single pairs on this flop, trying to take the pot down right there, as well as trying to determine if my hand is good at all. So if you have a piece, I get a good start towards building a pot by making a bet that is going to look like a weak hand or even an attempt to buy the pot to a lot of players.

And given the choice between picking off an 80 chip continuation, or building a pot against somebody who has a piece and is likely to pay off at least one more bet on the turn or river (or both!), I'm going to go for pot-building almost every time. If I've flopped 2 pair or a set on this dry board, I want to give myself every possible opportunity for taking a big pot, and checking is not the way to do that except against superdonkaggro players who will three-barrel with air frequently. And quite frankly, you don't sound like one of those players. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Of course, against most people, I generally expect to get called on the river by most aces, as well.