$2 NLHE Full Ring: Bet sizing on flush draw

Only got 13 hands on villain so take it with a grain of salt.

Flop second pair with nut flush draw, want some opinions on bet sizing in this spot.

On the flop I am looking to build the pot, 2 players still in so I make it fairly big.

Once villain has called the flop I am assuming he will call most reasonable sized bets on the turn and will bet into it if we check. Do you like a small bet here to give us a cheap river card or something larger so we can shove river if we hit?

Also what's your plan for the river if we miss our flush?

poker stars $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $2.18
SB: $1.89
BB: $2.00
UTG: $1.95
UTG+1: $1.97
UTG+2: $2.00
MP1: $2.01
Hero (MP2): $11.94
CO: $2.19

Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is MP2 with K:spade: Q:spade:
4 folds, Hero raises to $0.06, 1 fold, BTN calls $0.06, 1 fold, BB calls $0.04

Flop: ($0.19) 4:spade: A:spade: K:diamond: (3 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $0.14, BTN calls $0.14, BB folds

Turn: ($0.47) 9:club: (2 players)
Hero ???

Checking here is fine. Villain has something when he calls 3-way. You have a nut draw, so the free card is great if he has a smaller flush draw, or a hand like JT. And you avoid a raise off you hand if he has 44/A4/A9.

Also, betting to "build the pot" is a terrible reason to bet, and shows a flaw in your thinking.

I think your flop bet was fine. You got a pretty decent piece of this flop with 2nd pair and the nut flush draw. The villain also called your raise from the button so his range is fairly wide. As the original raiser you should definitely follow through with a cbet. Once you get to the turn, both betting and checking are viable options. Personally, I would lean more towards betting for a couple of reasons. First, you may take the pot down immediately if the villain folds. Betting in this spot can also serve as a slight blocking bet as well as increasing the pot a little bit for those times you do hit your card on the river. There is very little downside to betting again in this spot because if you did check and the villain bets, you are going to be calling any reasonable bet since you probably have 14 outs. A bet of 50%-60% of the pot is going to be profitable in the long run even if the villain calls every time. The only real downside to betting the turn is that the villain may check-raise and push you off of your hand. This probably isn't going to happen very often here though.

Big hand big pot. small hand small pot. Here we have a pair of kings and a draw and maybe behind so no point building a bigger pot.....yet. Flop bet is fine by me. Im check calling here on the turn, if I thought I had the best hand Id bet. If we bet and he raises Yuk. The 9 is a brick on this board if he called the flop he's likely calling the turn.

What are the stats you have after 13 hands though? Does it look more like TAGish stats, fish, LAG, what?

Essentially, if my opponent looks bad or Fishy, I'd bet the turn here so you can control the pot sizing. Fish, even if they have big hands won't raise often enough, and they'll often call with worse hands also. If he's looking more TAG, I'd move more towards c/c mode.

check flop?

I see this as a very good occasion to check the flop, with a shove on the river. If the flush draw hits, u are way more likely to get called as most people would bet their flush draw on the flop and it is a pretty easy read for villain (Pair of Ace hero call anyone).

When the flush misses u call him down and value bet the river. He probably bets alot of kings, all his aces and bluffs quite alot. He has more kings than aces (he would 3bet the good ones and if he doesnt hes not betting and probably not calling with air) so you are good more often than not.

don't like your C-bet oop with 2nd pair + nut flush draw vs 2 opponents.
You have enough for check call.

Betting the flop is fine, while it's unlikely we get any folds from Ax, we have so much equity, we don't mind the pot being bloated a little.

Once he calls, we have to start thinking about our turn/river play. Do we think we can go from semi-bluffing to full on turning our hand into a bluff by triple barreling?

Is he likely to check back if we check and allow us to realise our equity cheaply?

Is he likely to turn some floats, ie JJ etc into a bluff when we check?

Without reads, I think I would check/call a reasonable sized bet here with a view to check/folding the river if we completely brick.

bremensha said:

don't like your C-bet oop with 2nd pair + nut flush draw vs 2 opponents.
You have enough for check call.

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So would you rather check/call the flop and turn? then what are we going to do on the river if our flush hits?

I think the worst part of this hand is that we are OOP so even when we hit our flush it will be fairly hard to get Ax hands to call a large bet. This reduces our implied odds greatly.

RegiTime said:

Betting the flop is fine, while it's unlikely we get any folds from Ax, we have so much equity, we don't mind the pot being bloated a little.

Once he calls, we have to start thinking about our turn/river play. Do we think we can go from semi-bluffing to full on turning our hand into a bluff by triple barreling?

Is he likely to check back if we check and allow us to realise our equity cheaply?

Is he likely to turn some floats, ie JJ etc into a bluff when we check?

Without reads, I think I would check/call a reasonable sized bet here with a view to check/folding the river if we completely brick.

Click to expand...

We should be thinking about this before we bet the flop right?

This is 2nl so triple barrel bluffing is bad in most situations. What size is reasonable enough for you to call the turn?

No Brainer said:

So would you rather check/call the flop and turn? then what are we going to do on the river if our flush hits?

I think the worst part of this hand is that we are OOP so even when we hit our flush it will be fairly hard to get Ax hands to call a large bet. This reduces our implied odds greatly.


We should be thinking about this before we bet the flop right?

This is 2nl so triple barrel bluffing is bad in most situations. What size is reasonable enough for you to call the turn?

Click to expand...

I always encourage people to think as far ahead as possible during a hand. We can do this by using our timebank on earlier streets when our immediate decisions are easier.

I think triple barreling can be ok at $2nl but Axxxx boards, or other boards that don't change much are bad times to try it.

Check with intention of calling on the turn. If we bet and villain has an ace or any better hand then me might get shoved on which we do no want.

Take a freebie is what i would suggest.