Quote Originally Posted by Toadstool
What he thinks of you here is huge, from what I've gathered from P4's posts you seem to be really solid and if that'e the case he probably knows that seeing as he is a reg as well.

If you've been 3 betting light and pick up a hand you can REALLY throw almost all mid stakes regs off by playing it completely differently to how they would expect you to play it - I know this sounds obvious but this is a perfect spot to do it. A reg here would think that you would almost never smooth call with AA in the situation if you have been 3 betting light as they would expect you to take advantage of what they think of you "Ok, he smooth called, obviously low PP or some suited connecter type hand - if he had some monster hand he would 3 bet me because he thinks I won't give him any credit"

Also a thing that makes it better to smooth in this situation is the fact he is UTG - He knows you know his range is smaller there so you would expect to be able to get value from more of his range if you did have a big hand hence you 3bet a big pair here (in his mind)

You're obviously good post flop so that is another thumbs up here - and another bonus is that if you do show down AA in this situation then it is really good for metagame.

That being said I'm not advocating that calling is better than raising here but I'm just saying the merits to calling and that it you should at least be mixing it into your game a good % of the time.
Finally someone gets the point of this thread. METAGAME!

WP Toads