OK. Kind of a speculative type starting hand. Hard to continue without a queen on the flop or some other flop like T9X, a flop that's even less likely than QXY. (With QQXY, you'll see a queen on the flop about one time out of eight). I think maybe you can make this pay for you in a loose, passive pot-limit or no-limit game, but it's tough to do well with the hand in fixed-limit. At any rate, you see the flop cheaply and might be able to win enough when you win to make up for the times you miss or lose.
Quote:
2 folds, BB checks
Flop: (4.4 SB) 8 A Q (4 players)
BB bets, UTG calls, MP folds, Hero ???
You wanted to see a flop with a queen, and you got one, but it also has an ace, two pesky spades, and two pesky low cards.
And BB bets. That could be a very wide range, maybe two or three good low cards, maybe two spades, maybe a set of aces or eights, maybe two pairs, maybe less. The bet is coming from BB, so that depending on how BB plays, it could be almost anything.
And UTG calls. That also could be a very wide range.
I'd raise. Hero probably has the best hand at this point. Let's see what the others do, how they react to the raise. My guess is they probably both call and then check the turn. Or BB could re-raise, knocking out UTG. (If so, fine). Or BB could call and UTG could re-raise, and then we cap, forcing BB to confront a two-bet.
At any rate, I'd raise. The motivation for raising is simply to see what the others will do, to gain information cheaply. And we probably have the best high hand at this point. Then we re-evaluate after the turn and the action preceding our involvement on the third betting round.
Buzz