live 4-8, AKs in SB

[GForce3000]

4-8 live

HJ is tight old man, he’s more aggressive than most tight old guys, seems to play pretty well

5 limpers, I raise in SB with AhKh, BB and limpers call (14 SB)

flop is 9h2c3s

I bet, 2 MP limpers and HJ call (9 BB)

turn is 4d

I check, it gets checked to HJ who bets, I call and one other player calls (12 BB)

river is Ad

I check, MP checks, HJ bets, I call

I think I played this hand pretty badly, what should I have done differently? FWIW, the HJ was not the kind of old man who would only bet two pair or better when I checked to him on the turn, I think he definitely bets a 9 there and maybe something like 88 or 77.

[chesspain]

Why are you betting the flop?

[GForce3000]

My reasoning for betting the flop was that the pot was large and I wanted to maximize my chances of winning by making hands with two live cards fold, but now that I think about it I guess it doesn't matter much whether they fold since I'm almost always behind against 6 opponents so I need to make a pair to win. Point well taken.

[Clarkmeister]

If you are going to check-call the turn, you may as well just bet.

[SNOWBALL]

check flop
since you didn't check flop, fold turn
since you didn't fold turn, bet river.

Basically, you only got preflop right

[Frond]

Since you raised PF with this strong hand you probabaly felt like you had to do the obligatory flop c-bet right?(I feel your pain believe me) If you would have checked the flop it is quite possible you may have seen the turn for free here, which you badly need with your 2 overs and your BDFD going against this many opponents. On the turn you could have just C/folded now. This is a good hand to save some bets on. A topic that I am going post about.

[WhiteKnight]

I used to auto-bet this flop like 100% of the time. It's a huge leak, as was brought to my attention by members of this forum. On a somewhat related note, I still think I leak with AK because I pretty much always see the river with hopes of pairing up. Something about a feeling of entitlement that comes with holding AK. Obviously a bad frame of mind...

[GForce3000]

Okay, thanks everybody, I agree that this is a bad bet on the flop. I'm curious about the number of opponents that you would bet this flop against. Would you guys bet it if you only had two opponents? What about three?

BTW, HJ won the hand with 6d5d.