A9 hand against a three bettor

[Sandberg]

Hollywood Poker $2-$4
9 handed table. No reads on villain.
Hero is MP1 with A [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 9 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

Two folds, Hero raises, Five folds, BB re-raises, Hero calls
(6 sb)
Flop: J [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 5 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 9 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

Villain bets, Hero Raises, Villain calls.
(5 bb)

Turn: 10 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

Villain bets, Hero calls
(7 bb)
River: 2 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

Villain bets, Hero calls.
(9 bb)
Hero loses a bunch of money on hand.

Where’d I go wrong? If I played the hand correctly, I can live with the results. I don’t want to be influenced by how the hand ended up, just how to open A9 in MP1 and what to do when there is a re raise and then I flop mid pair heads up against a raiser who then donks into me on the turn.

[RobDoral]

On a weak passive table that I was slapping around I don't mind the raise with A9s (as long as it's not a habit) assuming I haven't shown down a lot of crap on previous raises. You might knock out small to medium pairs and AQ-AT. But if I'm new to a table or it's not passive and weak I'm more inclined to limp with that hand and hope to get someone playing A8 or less to come in with me (some might recommend a fold, limping with this is a probably a leak in my game but I do pretty well after the flop). It's really more of a hand where you hope to hit a flush or flush draw, two pair, or a set of 9s. It's hard to tell what to do if you just hit an ace on the flop.

I don't necessarily mind the flop raise to see where you are in the hand and I think the call by the villian indicates weakness.

What could the villian be betting with on the turn that you could actually beat assuming he's not a total idiot (and he's betting into your flop raise)? I've seen bad players donk bet me when they picked up both a flush and straight draw on the turn but I think this is unlikely given the board and the fact that you raised the flop after his three bet. If he three bet KQ from the blinds I think he's pretty bad or has watched you make some marginal raises.

What makes sense to me is that the villian caught a third 10 though there are a lot of other possibilities depending on how loose he is.