How do I deal with suspected flush draws?

[MrUnlikely]

In short, when the board is not paired and someone is sticky, or aggressive, and I have a good hand, but not the nuts, such as top two pair, how am I supposed to deal with a turn or river card that brings in the flush and subsequent aggression? It is often said that we should play flush draws aggressively.


In position, I guess I should check. I seem to lose a lot of value this way, but betting results in getting check-raised when they have a flush. They almost never bluff check-raise river when a flush comes in, so I guess I can check or bet-fold? Is one better than the other? Against a loose aggressive player, is it better to check? They are more likely to bluff, which makes me more likely to call, and it is difficult to get away, they also have more flush combos like 9h6h.

OOP with a strong hand, I have often taken the lead. Let's say I flop top two on AJ6 board. I raise on the flop or turn, and they call, and then I start to worry. I bet 60% on the turn, and when the flush comes in on the river, if I don't continue on the river it looks very weak and they might represent the flush when checked to. For this reason, I sometimes bet, sometimes get raised, and sometimes call to see a flush- rarely anything else. OOP I guess I should check-call, check-fold? I should also check with my flushes so that I am balanced here?

Because I sometimes have the flush, is it okay just to fold when raised on the river if my opponent likely has a flush? By likely to have a flush, I could say the board is quite dry apart from the flush draw and it makes me think that flush draw is the most likely, and possibly trips.

As a flush should only be rivered 18% of the time, can I just give up if I think they may well have had a flush draw? If they lose unless a flush comes in, and they call a 70% turn bet, then folding every flush card means they are getting 3:1 or less when they need 5.5:1 to make their call profitable. Do I need to worry about getting bluffed all the time here, considering I will sometimes have flushes? The other options seem to be just to check-call a reasonable bet?

Overall, I have lost to too many flushes at showdown.

 

[danoscar]

If the villain goes maniac when the same suited cards show, fold. If he checks, well that could just mean about anything. If he bets min, call, but only if you have the goods. You think. And if he checks, follow suit.

 

[Nismo]

In position if checked to and I suspect a flush draw I would normally check and go to showdown. If I don't expect a flush but have a decent hand I would make a 50% value bet and fold to a re-raise.

OOP, if I was the aggressor I would continue my aggression but maybe tone it down a little to 40-50% pot. Otherwise I would check/call a small river bet or fold to anything above 50%

 

[GARCIA PABLO DANIEL]

hello

It has happened many times !! Chek call would be the best option. It would also pay with a trio or double pairs, the safest thing that when you have only one pair, most of the time the soft throws color at the villain! Sometimes on the flop you are setting up a trap for bears perhaps with a three of a kind, turn flies the draw to flush or there are already three cards of the same suit on the table, bets half a pot they pay you, river another of the same suit more complex still, chek It is the ideal and considering what the villain does, we see how we act !!!

 

[henriquemaduro]

In short, when the board is not paired and someone is sticky, or aggressive, and I have a good hand, but not the nuts, such as top two pair, how am I supposed to deal with a turn or river card that brings in the flush and subsequent aggression? It is often said that we should play flush draws aggressively.


In position, I guess I should check. I seem to lose a lot of value this way, but betting results in getting check-raised when they have a flush. They almost never bluff check-raise river when a flush comes in, so I guess I can check or bet-fold? Is one better than the other? Against a loose aggressive player, is it better to check? They are more likely to bluff, which makes me more likely to call, and it is difficult to get away, they also have more flush combos like 9h6h.

OOP with a strong hand, I have often taken the lead. Let's say I flop top two on AJ6 board. I raise on the flop or turn, and they call, and then I start to worry. I bet 60% on the turn, and when the flush comes in on the river, if I don't continue on the river it looks very weak and they might represent the flush when checked to. For this reason, I sometimes bet, sometimes get raised, and sometimes call to see a flush- rarely anything else. OOP I guess I should check-call, check-fold? I should also check with my flushes so that I am balanced here?

Because I sometimes have the flush, is it okay just to fold when raised on the river if my opponent likely has a flush? By likely to have a flush, I could say the board is quite dry apart from the flush draw and it makes me think that flush draw is the most likely, and possibly trips.

As a flush should only be rivered 18% of the time, can I just give up if I think they may well have had a flush draw? If they lose unless a flush comes in, and they call a 70% turn bet, then folding every flush card means they are getting 3:1 or less when they need 5.5:1 to make their call profitable. Do I need to worry about getting bluffed all the time here, considering I will sometimes have flushes? The other options seem to be just to check-call a reasonable bet?

Overall, I have lost to too many flushes at showdown.

I would check and call a min raise, anything more than that I fold if I suspect a flush.

 

[JordanH]

I've been on the losing end of so many of these that I've become very wary of flushes. If you pay attention to cards when they are turned over at the end of hands, you almost always see two suited cards in many player's hands. People play them a lot, so if there are two or more other players in a hand by the river, and if the river is the 3rd suited card, and especially if there were two suited cards on the flop, I usually assume that one of them made the flush on the river.

I think the best solution is not to play out of position in the first place, and if you do, don't continue unless you have a stronger made hand and are also on a flush draw. Never bet much on a 2 or 3 suited card flop unless you're in that last category. If you're going to make a big play with just 2 pair wait till the turn when the odds are less helpful to the flush draw. Once you get to the river with no flush completed then you just have to worry about the flopped set that has been quietly waiting for the river to smash your 2 pair. Ha ha, my bad!

 

[Bnobob]

FLUSH DROW

with villain betting after the flop being before the flop you are playing for a flush. now as check-fold hero. Play hero being profitable

 

[YenRodriguez]

Generally, when you try to bluff with a flush, they will play in two ways, or call or raise again, when a player who has played enough hands will call you and after the river will throw an all in and it will be late and you will have lost some money

 

[najisami]

The easy answer would be to check/call if the bet is affordable. But in poker there are no general or standard strategies one could go by. In fact, there are always so many factors in play. A very relevant one to your inquiry would be the type of opponent you are up against. In my opinion, that would definitely dictate the proper action.

 

[cardplayer52]

I agree that checking back IP is right(not saying I'm right). I just think the 3 or 4 flush on the river will likely kill your action. If you bet your less likely to get called by worse hands. OOP I think check/calling is better. As it could be checked back also if you bet your likely to get bluffed. If you check call the river villain has all his bluffs in his range still. If you knw the villain never bluffs maybe check/fold but in general check/call I think is the line. Yes you get stacked sometimes but I think you get more value with a check/call line.

 

[phoenixKK]

When I suspect the flush draw I simply fold easily.My feelings inside generally order me to do so.

 

[killing_random]

For this reason, I sometimes bet, sometimes get raised, and sometimes call to see a flush- rarely anything else. OOP I guess I should check-call, check-fold? I should also check with my flushes so that I am balanced here?

Hello there! Bro, relax, if you're playing on a low limits, you're definitely should forget about balancing anything. Especially on the river. C-mon, its the rarest played street. You may start to think about balancing your river when you're about to play 1k $ buy-in games

Simple answer to your question:
Unless dro is closed and you're having much likely strongest possible hand right now, you should value bet like crazy because you're also want to pressure players with that dro. 70-100% of a pot, you can even overbet. It's could go in a two ways - opp folds or paying a maximum prize to see the next card. Both works in our favor because 2/3 times dro will miss by a river, it is always a plus play.
So, while dro remains dro, we are betting or calling big. Dro closes - nope, that's it. Mr. Villain, you won't getting any chips from us anymore, take your 1/3 value and bye-bye. I won't see anything wrong with showing weakness here, because honest play is already a "win/win" there. Plus we gain some respect for not messing around which will improve our betting image. Good folds can make you scarier to play against too.
If your hand not that strong for betting that much and require some pot control, you could see a cheap turn and get out without paying anything extra, or see that it is save, and make an overbet on the turn. It would do everything that I mentioned earlier and protect you from bluff check-raise.