[mused01]

Preflop is fine. The flop is very villain dependent. Especially button. If you think CO can fire here with lower pair to take it away but isn't capable of bluffraising, I would just fire the flop and fold to any resistance. It's very unlikely button has an Ace.

I'll be the first to say that I don't really like my play because it's the very standard donkish "bet to see where you're at" type of thinking.

And no, this is not a "why not do that with 38o then" type of situation.