In a general sense, I sometimes struggle with how to play flopped nut straights. I usually just fastplay them hard, because straights can never improve, and in fact get progressively weaker on the turn and river. My problem in this hand comes with how much money i got in the pot on the flop, which then put me to a borderline decision on the turn. No real reads on the villain yet, but he seems semi-fishy.


PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (9 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx

Button ($73.85)
SB ($39.60)
Hero ($70.35)
UTG ($49.50)
UTG+1 ($38.55)
MP1 ($46.65)
MP2 ($229.70)
MP3 ($19.50)
CO ($46.75)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 5:heart:, 6:heart:.
1 fold, SB completes, Hero checks.

Flop: ($2.50) 7:spade:, 4:club:, 8:club: (5 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $3, SB calls $15.

Turn: ($44.50) 9:club: (2 players)
SB bets $18.1 (All-In), Hero calls $18.10.

River: ($80.70) 8:diamond: (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $80.70


Ok, my main questions here are these. First of all, can I fold this turn getting those kind of pot odds? And second of all, seeing as how my pot reraise on the flop pretty much committed me, or at least made a bad turn card very tough on me, should I just go ahead and push it on the flop?

Well played, if he called your huge flop reraise with the flush draw and hit on the turn so be it. You cant fold here as the pot is to big and he could be pushing with a ton of hands here. Also how often does a flush draw check raise you the min on the flop OOP.

you played it fine. I'm calling that turn 100% of the time.

Looks like he boated up on the river though.

sucky

looks like trips that filled.

You played it fine if you wanted a good balance between making him pay for right drawing odds and value.

If you wanted him to fold, then all-in is your only bet on the flop. It seems you were going to put it all-in on the turn anyway so why not on the flop.

Edit: I agree with everyone else and put him on trips as well.

I'd say you played it fine. No prob calling that allin on the turn. The fact that he raised the flop would seem to indicate that he wasnt chasing the flush (although I will occassionally try and get tricky by raising on the draw in order to get more action if it hits). He did get the boat on the river, right?

Actually, he didn't fill up. He had 10 7 of clubs for what he thought was a really big draw. My main question is, if my flop reraise commits me anyway, should I just go ahead and push it then?

A lot more often than you think.

Leaves, I'd be tempted to push the flop.

Push the flop. He's drawing to pair the board or catch his flush, make him pay. This is such a bad board for the nuts, if that makes any sense.

Make him pay to get there.

I'm going to play armchair quarterback here. Of course you can't know that someone is definitely on the flush draw, and that flush will definitely get there on the turn.

You are supposed to play flopped straights fast, it's true. Your hand can't improve any more than a straight, and that's bad because the turn and river can make better-than-straights possible.

The idea is if you're 3 handed, and you push the flop hard, and some donk calls and someone else has the flush draw, he's pretty much EV neutral to you and you're playing defense to dodge the board.

But, (especially out of position) if you just take a turn card off, you can fold when the bad card hits (because you're not committed from not heavily betting the flop). If a GOOD card hits, you can check/raise BIG with the nut straight, and if he calls THAT, he's drawing at much worse value than if the flop had been pushed hard.

The idea is you pass up a small edge on the flop

a) to exploit a much bigger edge on the turn
b) to give yourself an exit strategy if the board shat on you on the turn or river
c) deception

"Waiting for the turn to raise" is a gamble, because you're DEFINITELY passing up value on the flop. The advantage to it is that you can quite confidently exploit that much larger edge on a (by definition) safe board, and at these stakes, people will still call with the NFD on the turn.

The difference between this and slowplaying is that this is making a plan for the HAND on the flop.

Key factors here:

a) out of position
b) our hand can't improve past what it already is
c) our hand is very strong to beat one pair, two pair, or trips