This is something I've been wondering for a while in happened to me a little back and I pondered it for some time and have decided to ask here, it was during a tournament so why I thought this thread was applicable if not please advise on where would be! I also didn't think it warrant the hand analysis thread either.

So as I said before it was the early stages of a tournament, and I opened min raise form late position with Q10 suited, and the big blind called. the flop comes to give me the Royal Flush and after a check from the villain I con bet the same size I had made it preflop to a fold from the villain.

So my question is can we get paid in situation like this?

I know that there are factors that need to be considered and that this player maybe just had nothing to call any further.

Just views from another perspective is what I'm looking for I suppose!

It obviously depends on if villan has caught any of the flop he could have a small pocket pair or suited connectors that can't call a bet even a small one. With the absolute nuts you could allow him to hit something he could call turn or even bluff with. If he has an ace he would probably pay off one bet. The best hand to get paid with would be a flopped flush or set from your opponent although no sets would make sense really as AA KK or JJ would raise pre most of the time

Originally Posted by Ianmacca99

It obviously depends on if villan has caught any of the flop he could have a small pocket pair or suited connectors that can't call a bet even a small one. With the absolute nuts you could allow him to hit something he could call turn or even bluff with. If he has an ace he would probably pay off one bet. The best hand to get paid with would be a flopped flush or set from your opponent although no sets would make sense really as AA KK or JJ would raise pre most of the time

Yeah I think your right, I'm not convinced this particular hand could have played out much different, perhaps as you say maybe let the villain make a bet of some sort!

Better table knowledge would have been nice also I hadn't been playing with those players very long either.

Thanks' for the input though...

In cases like this where I flop the world I tend to check behind. Its not always the case but it usually my default play. The reason is you will not likely run into many hands that will pay you off for 3 streets of value anyway. Checking the flop gives them a chance to catch up a little and hit something. Knowing that we have a royal we have nothing to fear except fear itself. In this specific scenario it is possible you can get some value on the flop though because there is an ace and a king on the board. However, unless villain flopped a flush too or another flush card comes on the turn, it will be hard to bet, bet, bet and get called 3 times. You should be very happy with a hand like this if you can get two streets of value out of it.

Good for you for flopping the Royal. As far as getting paid, you are desperately hoping your opponent has something, because if they don't, you're getting no additional chips. So checking on the flop is the only thing you really can do. If you even get one street of value, that's good.

Of course, that's out the window if you're facing somebody who's VERY aggressive, and is going to try and rep a VERY strong hand, in which case you're going to sit back and watch your villain get you paid.


Watch this clip from the 2008 WSOP Main Event. From Wikipedia.

In a stunning statistical improbability, Justin Phillips knocked out Motoyuki Mabuchi in the Main Event. Phillips held a Royal Flush and Mabuchi held quad aces. One of the broadcasters, Lon McEachern, mentioned on air that the chances of such a showdown occurring were 1:2.7 billion. Ray Romano had just sat down at the table when this hand played itself out.

You Tube

In this case, there are two choices, or we continue to raise or trap the opponent and wait, but I would rather continue to raise the opponent does not think you have the best card, so you can call me for something or whatever.

I actually flopped a royal last week. It was actually strange, because it took a few seconds for me to see it. It seemed to register that I had flopped the flush, as well as the straight. It took a few extra seconds before my brain went straight, flush...royal flush!

In my mind, the best thing you can do when you make a hand like this is give your opponent a chance to bet at it. The last thing you want to do is chase them away. If you're lucky, you'll be up against an aggressive player that will bet it for you, or a calling station that might be skeptical or just plain stubborn enough to stick around. Of course you will have to have been paying attention in order to know what kind of player you're up against. You might have to check and hope they pick up enough equity on the turn or river to give you a call.

In my case, I had raised pre-flop with K-10 of clubs, and the flop had come A-Q-J all clubs. My image was tight enough that, unless my opponent had an ace, they would probably fold to any bet I made. So I checked the flop and it was checked back to me. A small card fell on the turn, which also went check, check. The river was a king. I new it was my last chance to get any value out of my hand, so I bet out a little more than half pot. My opponent actually had K-J and had flopped a pair of jacks. But he had been reluctant to bet it, having already seen me lay more than one trap. But when he made two pair on the river he was emboldened enough to actually raise me. He had tripled my river bet, so I tripled his raise. He hesitated a long enough for me to start hoping he might shove on me, but ended up just calling.

I got lucky to get a little extra value out of my royal flush. Of course I had to wonder if he might have called the flop and turn with the two over cards out there. Maybe I could have gotten him to call an all-in by the time we got to the river. But big hands like that are always tricky. I've flopped straights and flushes on plenty of occasions when I was unable to extract any chips out of my opponent, no matter how slow I played the hand. How much value you can get out of big hand, or if you can get any at all, often depends what kind of opponent you're up against, and getting lucky enough to have them get a piece of the board or pick up a draw that they're willing to chase.

In this particular spot you are probably not going to extract a ton of value in the long run, because you have a big range advantage, and you also block some of your opponents continuence range.

They probably did not flop a set or top two pair, because AA, KK, TT and AK would have been 3-bet. They cant have the nut flushdraw or second nut flushdraw, because you have those cards, and the number of made flushes are also somewhat limited, when the five highest flush cards are all accounted for.

With that being said I still think, the best way to extract value against an unknown opponent is to make a completely normal C-bet. There is no need to get caught in this "dear in the headlight" syndrome, where we feel, we MUST do something different and fancy, just because we have a royal flush. Its still just a hand of poker like any other.

And as for "letting them catch up" what exactly would we be hoping for them to improve to? They could make a straight on a Q or J, but that probably means, they flopped a pair + gutshot, and that kind of hand is not folding to a normal C-bet. They could also make a 1-liner flush, but if that flush is good enough to pay us off, then the draw is also good enough to pay us on the flop.

And a 1-liner to a straight and particular a flush will pretty much kill our action from hands like two pair or top pair, that would gladly have paid a bet on the flop. So its benefitial against some parts of their range but bad against other parts. If on the other hand they have a small pair or two undercards, then they are not going to love the board more on the turn, unless they improve to a set, which is only a 4-5% possibility.

It is opponent specific though, and if the Villain is to aggressive for his own good, then this can certainly be a good spot for setting the trap. After all you know, you cant get drawn out on, so you can feel completely comfortable calling turn and raising river, whatever happen to the board.

Unfortunately, in such cases, most often everything depends on the hand of your opponent, you can only hope that the flop suited him or completely passed by, because only in such cases can the opponent put. The presence of an ACE and a king and a one-suit flop strongly kills the trade.

Thanks for the input everyone, I believe the line I took was correct. I would most likely play it the same way again if it came up but was curious to hear others views on it..

Yesterday hapen to me, flopped royal, and asked my self the same question, how to extract any kind of value? I checked flop, and min raise turn, where villain calls, then raise 1/3 of the pot and villain shows all in. I couldn’t be more happier. He showed full house. By the way, I had K10 of hearts, flop was A,Q,J of hearts turn A, and river 10. So, he has to have something to pay, in no other cases you will not get any value from your royal, and I think best way to play it is to somehow hide it.

Originally Posted by popstani

Yesterday hapen to me, flopped royal, and asked my self the same question, how to extract any kind of value? I checked flop, and min raise turn, where villain calls, then raise 1/3 of the pot and villain shows all in. I couldn’t be more happier. He showed full house. By the way, I had K10 of hearts, flop was A,Q,J of hearts turn A, and river 10. So, he has to have something to pay, in no other cases you will not get any value from your royal, and I think best way to play it is to somehow hide it.

Again I believe this confirms that my line was correct as the opponent has to have something to continue, unless for some crazy reason they have decided they will bluff this pot!

If I was to check and keep having the villain check also then I have just wasted my time trying to extract where it was never coming from..

Can get paid by the river anyway with a royal flush like I did today in this $50 buy in triple up with a ko,
Say the flop is definitely possible also.
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