Flopped the Nut Straight with 2 suited cards- how would you play it?

[DonT77]

B&M Live Tourney, $50 buy-in w/61 players, top 7 pay (1100,750,400...150). Blinds move up very aggressively.

Level 2 - 2nd orbit, avg stack is about t3500, blinds at 50/100. Let's assume all players involved have t3500 in chips.

UTG calls 100, folded to Hero in MP who calls 100 with K /images/graemlins/club.gifJ /images/graemlins/club.gif, folded to SB who completes, BB checks.

4 players to see the flop, pot = t400.

Flop comes 9 /images/graemlins/spade.gifT /images/graemlins/spade.gifQ /images/graemlins/diamond.gif (nut straight)

SB checks (LAG), BB checks (LAG), UTG (a fishy, loose, semi-aggressive, semi-calling station player) bets t100, what do you do here:

[gergery]

You have to bet this, primarily for two reasons
1) you opponents are likely to have connected with this flop in some way, and therefore should be willing to pay to see another card
2) your hand is vulnerable. You have the nuts now, but any spade, 9, T, J, Q, K could make someone a better hand than yours. That’s roughly half the deck.

I’d bet the most that one of the hands that can beat me should be willing to pay, while still making a mistake. In this case: Ax spades or Kx spades, and sets should be willing to call a pot size bet or perhaps even more. And some of the hands that don’t worry you should also be willing to call a pot sized bet: TPTK, TwoPair, OnePair+Strdraw

--Greg

[DonT77]

Thanks Greg and everybody who answered the poll.

I did raise t500 and everybody folded. At the time I felt like I may have missed an opportunity for a larger pot if I sat back and prayed for rags, but after receiving this feedback I feel much better about my play. Thanks.

[SossMan]

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks Greg and everybody who answered the poll.

I did raise t500 and everybody folded. At the time I felt like I may have missed an opportunity for a larger pot if I sat back and prayed for rags, but after receiving this feedback I feel much better about my play. Thanks.

[/ QUOTE ]

You got unlucky that they didn't have as much as QJ or some other cheez-whiz. I would have made it t400, but results I'm sure would have been the same.

[37offsuit]

I think that the problem here is the minimum bet by UTG and then your raise is going to push out everyone except maybe the UTG who is likely probeing on a coordinated board.

So your decision is do you want to give any of the draws odds to call? What hands will call a bet and a raise here? Probably not top or middle pairs with maybe a gut shot, the kinds of hands you want calling.

If someone flopped a set and is looking to check raise, what you do won't matter. All of your chips and their chips are going to get to the middle.

So I guess the question is, do you want to gamble here? You've got a smallish pot that you can probably take down here. Or you can let the turn come out to see if it's threatening.

Under this specific circumstance, I might min-raise right back at the UTG to try to enduce a bluff. If he just calls, see what the turn brings. If it's a red duck, then he might bet again, representing top pair against what he'll perceive as your flush draw. Now you can get more aggressive.

If the flush card comes, then you still have position on him, so he probably won't get too aggressive.

What I keep getting back to is your read on UTG. He's fishy, loose, semi-aggressive, semi-calling station player. His bet indicates a weak holding to me, anything good he would have likely bet a little harder. He wants to see more cards cheap, but a flush draw, I would have to assume, he'd see as a strong holding. Maybe raise 200 to 300 to make the BB and SB pay if they want to come along.