[Jim Morgan]

Is this kind of bet on the flop from the small blind automatic?

Is it a necessary sort of deception or actually for value?

I recall reading in HPFAP (or one of that group) that handling a hand
like Kh5h with a flop of KdJc3d from the blinds is very tricky and that
c/f, c/c and c/r are all viable and of similar value.

If that is true, doesn't this hand squarely falli into the c/f category.

Also, just why would AJ get involved, especially in early to mid position. A player in poor position is firing into several players. Maybe a call for a nice turn or to see if the better backs away, but should AJ really plan to just call down when the turn and river look to have low impact?

Sure, folding AJ feels really lame when the better has J9 and nobody else has a K, but it seems like most of the time this is calling with 5 outs. This is probably fine on the flop, but calling the turn with only 5:1 odds or so to imporve just seems spewy to me. But someone here said that you are never getting AJ to fold. I guess that is true on the river, since calling on the turn pretty much commits one to calling the river, but I just don't see calling the turn against a solid player.

And if I was going to get involved with AJ in that spot, shouldn't I raise?