Live 2/3 in Australia. Game is pretty good, unfortunately Im completely OOP to the BIG spot in the game, who is sitting on around 1200. The big spot has got it in preflop with KTs for 50bb+ because "he had too" and has got it in pre with A9o as well for 100bb. Occasinally has gone nuts preflop, and probably had a VPIP around 70 or so. Sometimes puts on the $6 raise from anyway and in general doing lots of -EV things and having a laugh and joke. Has peeled a turn with 87o on a T52 board. Im still waiting to move onto his left, but cant at the moment. I have around 400 at the start of this hand. The rest of the table is kind of solid relatively speaking, but I would have a somewhat narrow edge over the field without this player in the game. Asian guy in the hand is a bit of a maniac that usually plays higher, very loose pre but a bit more solid post flop. Asian woman is a TAG that is probably a tiny bit too loose pre to be optimal, but certainly a winner in the game. At this point of time they both have me covered, so eff. stacks are 400, or 133bb.

I raise UTG+1 to 20 with red aces, and get called by the spot behind me, Asian man in MP and asian lady in the CO. Blinds fold

FLOP: $85: 245

Hero? betting lineup is me, spot, asian guy and then asian girl.

Couldn't be a better board with aces. You have straight and a flush draw. Bet 65 or 75 (I like odd numbers). I hope this is not a hard spot for you?

No, there are "better boards" out there. Its a good board, but not "the best"

Hypothetically, we bet 65 and get called in one spot. That would make the pot around 200 and we would have around 300 behind, a really ****** stack size.

My main thought, I probably should have posted it in the OP, was to check to the peanut on my left. He is going to be betting this board a fair bit I think, and if he doesnt, then the asian guy behind him almost certainly will. If we think about what kind of hands they would be calling with pre, at worst if we give a free card its probably to a 2 outer, at least the hands that are checking back, though I think they would be betting all overpairs and hands like A5dd.

If I check and there is a bet, most of the players behind are going to think that this guy with a wide range is somewhat full of ****, and there is a good chance of getting some money in, before c/r IMO. If we can get at least 100 in from either him, or a combination of him and others, we can c/r AI with a hand with terrific equity if behind and most likely the best hand vs their calling ranges, which will probably be overpairs with a heart for the other two, sets possibly and for the peanut almost any pair on this board.

So my main question was whether a bet was mandatory or not. I dont think so, but Im happy to be explained otherwise.

Mandatory to bet and call any shove.

But why is it mandatory to bet.

1) OOP to 3 players we would c/f a pretty big % of our range, such as AK-AJ of black. By checking its not like we are turning our hand faceup. Such as when the nit 3bets preflop then checks the AKx flop

2) There arent a plethora of draws/hands we need to not give free cards too. If I had AA of black then I would be betting 100%, and then re-evaluating. But with AA of red, its possible with a terrible, but still aggressive opponent to my immediate left, that we can have him do the betting, getting called by the asians and then c/r leaving us with a better SPR and trapping some dead money. My hand will probably be somewhat faceup to the asian players, but when I bet 4 handed into a field my hand must already be very strong at least QQ plus probably...

Limp reraise pre, bet call the flop. Checking here is really silly, you are losing tons of value.

i agree. CRAI the asians. amazing flop for your hand and with that line up behind you to act do we really lose value checking if we're certain that one of them will bet something?

Ya that flop sucks, if you get aces all-in sometimes you´re ahead but you have outs basically.

Why CRAI? you have a hand that is going to be good at showdown a lot why would you want to maximize fold equity when you can get more action from a bet, bet, bet line?

Let villian put you on AK with the ace of hearts, like they always do, and just bet/call all-in.

Please play in my game, i love the standard limp re-raise pre with AA, KK, AK here´s a question what do you do 200bbs deep and limp re-raise AA and the flop comes down 789 with two diamonds.

one reason is that you have the nut flush draw and an overpair so you can never be getting the money in too bad. If the flop was 245 I could see an arguement for check calling/raising if you aren´t firing these boards with a lot of air.

Please take pro out of your name. Clearly limp reraise pre is terrible smh.

I bet half - 2/3 pottish and go from there. If any one wants to get it all-in, I'm there (nut overpair, nut flush draw and dirtiesh gutshot is sucking up a huge amount of equity methinks). If spot raises, I think I push. If other villains raise, do we slow down a bit and just call / evaluate turn?

ETA: After reading OPs reasoning for check/raising the flop, I don't hate it. How often will spot bet here? If it's a lot, then I think a like your plan.