How should I have played this?

[dalecooper]

2/4 full ring. I get pocket fives on the BB, suits irrelevent. A player in late position raises and I call, along with one limper in middle position. So three go to the flop, pot is 6.5 small bets.

The flop is J45 rainbow. I check, middle position checks, and the pre-flop raiser bets. I had originally intended to check-raise this flop, but then decide to smooth call and see if I can get the other player to call for the fantastic odds the pot is laying him. Sadly, he folds despite the 8.5:1 odds. QUESTION 1: should I have just bet out here with my set? QUESTION 2: if I don't bet out, should I check-raise or smooth call? It occurs to me now that the original raiser is 80% likely to call my flop CR at these limits, so why get tricky and try to keep another player in who probably doesn't have any kind of hand that he would want to call bets on later streets? I have mixed feelings on this, please clear it up for me.

The turn card is a second jack, giving me the boat. I check to the first bettor, who bets again. I raise and he folds.

QUESTION 3: is my check-raise just way too obvious here? I'm only getting paid off by a jack, so maybe I should operate under the assumption that he doesn't have one (which most of the time he won't)? Afterward I felt it might have been better to bet out on the second jack hoping to induce a bluff, or smooth call his bet and then value-bet the river hoping for a call. Again I have mixed feelings. I think any of these could work in the right circumstances, but against a generic player with no read on playing style, I don't know what would be most profitable. I put the late position player on overcards with no piece of the board.

[outphase]

the flop call is OK if you intended on getting the limper in the game. Check/raising the flop gives the limper bad odds and indicates strength to the pf raiser, save the raise for the turn when he's more invested. I would play it the same hoping he held AJ. If you weren't gonna check/raise the turn, doing it on the river would be bad if he held AK and checked the river. You played it fine.

[chardrian]

I'm only getting paid off by a jack.

In 2/4 full ring?? No you're not. You're often getting called by 67, a whole bunch of pocket pairs, and maybe even AK or AQ. In general, fish can't lay down a turn after they bet into it first. Occassionally you'll get a fold like you did here, but in the longrun I think it's a good play.

[dalecooper]

chardrian - thanks, I hadn't even thought about that. I can't really picture the pre-flop raiser having 67, although I guess it's possible, but some other pocket pair is certainly a possibility. I strongly felt he just had high cards for some reason, but that doesn't mean that's what he actually had.

[Fnord]

MP sounds like a bad player, he's the guy you want calling bets all the way to the river. I would lead the flop and I'm torn between 3-betting or a stop'n'go if the button raises.