I often struggle with deciding what the right move is on the flop when I flop a flush. A strong bet often just leads to folds as opponents are not prone to floating with any junk at all. Even the most passive players seem able to find a fold on these suited boards.

Only 9 hands on villain but they are 100/0 and seem to enjoy seeing showdowns!

I chose not to C bet in this case. The board is not only suited but it is low and I think I'll scare away the fish. Either I'm miles ahead (majority of the time) or already beat (rarely).

I like the turn card, brings some draws/straights in. Villain leads out and now I see they are interested I like raising for value.

The river is horrible. I'm not really temped to hero call, I just sigh and fold. I'm not pot committed and better chances are more than likely going to come to take money away from this villain or someone else like him. If he is bluffing, good for him, but he has made the flush here often.

Do you ever take the punt here?



Pacific Poker - $0.02 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 4 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: 111 BB
BB: 76.5 BB
CO: 100 BB
Hero (BTN): 103 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 9♦ T♦

fold, Hero raises to 3 BB, fold, BB calls 2 BB

Flop: (6.5 BB, 2 players) 6♦ 3♦ 4♦
BB checks, Hero checks

Turn: (6.5 BB, 2 players) 7♥
BB bets 3 BB, Hero raises to 9 BB, BB calls 6 BB

River: (24.5 BB, 2 players) J♦
BB bets 64.5 BB and is all-in, fold

BB wins 23 BB

Preflop
Standard open from BTN, 3BB is fine.

Flop
I would definitely C-bet this for value / protection. Its not a way ahead way behind spot, because any hand with a diamond higher than T has around 35% equity, and another diamond will kill a lot of action from hands, you still beat. If you are going to mix in a trap, its much better to do it with the nut flush, because then you dont mind another diamond.

Turn
As played I am fine with raising, but checking flop and raising turn almost look stronger than betting flop and betting turn. So I dont think, this line generate more value. Whenever we bet for value, we want to make it look like, we are bluffing. And what hands would take this line as a bluff?

River
Terrible card and action, and its certainly fine to give him credit and fold to this massive overbet.

I think cbetting the flop is the better play than checking behind. Even though the board is low, you still have a lot of strong hands on that board - straights, flushes, 2 pair, sets as you are opening from BTN. plus betting here also balances out the times where you just have 1 diamond. Equities should run pretty similar when your opening from the button.
If you were in the LJ or HJ I could understand a check on the flop, however on the BTN you could easily bet large on this dynamic board and see what unfolds. Versus a fish you can easily get it in on the flop and play for stacks.

As played it sucks when he jams and I guess you have to sigh and fold.

I am fine with checking the flop here as the rationale you put in your post I also agree with. We are vulnerable here though since our flush is only 10 high so when I am in these spots I generally check as you do here but I also tell myself I only have a 10 high flush so I don't get married to my hand. The turn is a great card as it brings in any 5x which is probably unlikely but still possible. I disagree with your bet sizing here as I like something bigger as we probably cant get stacks in by the end of but we can get max value. They lead out so they have nothing or something that is going to call a raise of nearly any size. I like raising something like 15 BB here since if they will call 3x they probably will call 5x and if they were bluffing they are folding to either. The river is a diamond which we don't want and villain just saw us raise and now they are jamming into us so I think unless you know the villain is a loose cannon and is capable of these types of bets this is a relatively easy fold. I know it is a strong hand to fold but most villains wont be doing this especially at these levels so it is a fold and just move on. More than likely they have it with a big card diamond that even if you bet the flop and turn they would still likely stick around unless you really went large on them. In my opinion not played poorly but just some bad luck. However, if you are in the same spot against a villain who you know calls or floats a lot then you should be betting the flop here knowing they are a lot less likely to fold.

Originally Posted by 300HPGOD

I know it is a strong hand to fold but most villains wont be doing this especially at these levels so it is a fold and just move on.

As the hand played out, I think, we can confidently put Villain on pretty much exactly the A of diamonds. Its not difficult for him to have this card, since he probably called preflop with basically any unsuited ace, in which case there are 38 combos apart from those, that he would have 3-bet like AA, AK maybe AQ.

It also makes sense for him to lead the turn as a semi-bluff, once we check back flop, and of course he can call our raise, because he has a draw to the nuts. And then on the river, when he makes his hand, its just a really simple "LOL I have the nuts, I am all in!!!". People playing 2NL are beginners, and many of them are thinking on this very basic level. They are not thinking deeply about, which is the best way to get paid, calculating pot odds etc.