Re: Waiting for turn to protect
I have to agree with the general sentiment that a preflop raise with ATo is often spewy. In general, raising with offsuit hands in a way that builds a multi-way pot is bad. I might be able to see a case for raising if your opponents who limped ahead of you are unlikely to limp with AK/AQ/AJ, but even then, I think it's kind of thin.
Waiting until the turn to protect your hand is difficult because of several reasons. 1) There are way too many scare cards that can come and make it difficult to charge the field two bets. 2) As others have noted, the callers are most likely to be sandwiched between you and the likely aggressor.
One thing that the OP didn't mention is the suit of the ace. I would even say that the proper play might be to raise the flop if he has the backdoor nut flush draw and to just call if he doesn't because ATo with the A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] has fewer turn cards that make you puke.
There are a lot of factors that go into your decision here. What hands would UTG+1 bet here? (This hand can get really annoying to play if UTG+1 is a tighter-than-average player who would limp with AA preflop like that.) What hands would MP1 and MP2 just call with and which hands would they raise with? What are the players behind you calling for one vs two bets on the flop?
Overall, I don't think that this is a hand where you are looking to build a big pot. You haven't flopped something that practically guarantees you'll go to showdown. If you play well post-flop, there are cards that can come combined with scary betting patterns where you might end up folding the turn.
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