Last week I suffered a bad losing streak. I decided to move down to $100NL for a few days just to book a few wins. Ive won back about $500 in the past 3 days. Man, I forgot how bad some of the players are at this level are.

OK, I limp UTG with [Jd]. Its folded to MP who raises to $4. Button calls, and I call.
Ive seen the raiser bet an unimproved AK at every street and Ive seen him do it more than once.
Pot is $14. The flop comes [8h][9h]. I check, MP bets $4, Button folds. I cant remember how much MP bet his unimproved AK hands before but this sure looks like he missed. There are too many draws to make a small bet with an overpair. I check raise to $18. MP now goes all in. The bet is $27 to me and the pot is $77. What do you do?

Personally, I would hope that I would call. He can't have JT or 56, so apart from a set his only "made" hands that beat you right now are QQ, KK, AA. The guy looks to me like he's trying to represent one of those hands. You're putting him on AK from his previous play. You can win if you're right in your read. Even if he has the set or 2 pair, you can also win if you hit the straight or the backdoor flush. With the odds you're getting, you have to go for it.

Just my humble opinion.

I did call the all in. The turn and river were 's and I beat his set of 8's with my flush. I never wouldve thought he would make a small bet with a set with multiple draws available. I lucked out, but he misplayed the hand and allowed me to get lucky.

I think this is a pretty easy call. You are getting close to 3-1 on your call, and you have what I would consider a guaranteed 6-outs if you are behind. You have about a 25% chance of winning in that case, so your call is correct (my math might be a bit off, it's off the top of my head). In addition, I could definitely see him having either TT or [Kh] or [Qh]. Maybe even [Th], as farfetched as that may sound. Overall, you have several outs (in addition to the backdoor that you hit) and you are getting great odds to hit against a suspect player, I think you have to make the call everytime.

Oh and one more thing - I think I would prefer betting out here for two reasons. One is that while it is great that he will probably bet an unimproved AK, you also have to contend with button, and if he calls a weak bet from MP you have to put in a sizable raise to try to get both of them out. I don't think this is a hand where you want to play for your stack. At least one of them could easily have picked up a flush draw, and if you bet pot then the chances of them folding are much greater, rather than if they already put money in the pot and it is big enough that they are getting correct odds. Second, if MP happens to have woken up with a real hand, then you are gonna be in trouble after checkraising. The problem is that every pocket pair 7s and up beats you, with the exception of TT, which has some heavy draws. There is a good chance he raised with a pocket pair, so unless he has AK or AQ you are gonna be put in a tough spot after cr if he happens to come over the top of you. Just something to think about.

I saw it the opposite way. If I bet and MP raises (which some people will do even with unimporved AK), it would be much tougher for me to fold him because hes pot committed. With my check raise I add folding equity to my check raise.

Also, I wanted to see what the button did before I decided. If he called or raised, I probably wouldve folded.