Q&A #26: When to Drop the Hammer with a Flopped Set

Ed,
I was going to ask about a flopped set when I got home from playing tonight, but it was almost identical to this hand ( hand and board-wise) except I was out of position and no raise preflop. ( and cash game)

I called in sb with a pair of 3’s after 2 limpers ( I have a 95 bb stack to start ). BB checks.

The flop comes 2 3 5 with two diamonds. I bet the pot ( approx. 3 bb’s / rake subtracted) . The bb raises to 8 bb’s, one caller and back to me. After matching it the pot is 27 bb’s. I raise an additional 33 bb’s.

The bb goes all in. ( caller folds) My 33 plus 60 bb’s more. I had 55 bb’s left, was gettin 2-1 on a call, ( had no read on this player, it was his 3rd hand) and I called what turned out to be his flopped straight with a 4 6.

I was not upset except worrying I messed it up. I thought calling the flop raise was terrible. Should I have reraised less? or more ? I felt this was a hand I was going all the way with considering my stack wasn’t huge. Or considering the board , the action , and no read was this attitude stupid?

You want the bet to be big enough that flush draws are wrong to call, but small enough that someone with top pair or an overpair will still at least consider calling.

How is this possible?