Playing Middle Suited Connectors in 5-6 way pot

[peak_007]

For the sake of my example lets assume one is playing 5-6, 6-7, 7-8, or 8-9 suited.
These hands are supposed to play well in a large multi-way pot. I've run into a couple of tough situations here.
When two of your suit flop....how should one play the low flush draw? I know that the probability of an ace high flush beating
a king high flush is quite low......but how concerned should one generally be of being beat by a higher flush when you are say
8 high and 5-6 players see the flop.

The way I would approach this is........check with the intent to call a flush draw most of the time.......potentially raising post-flop if there is a straight draw as well as flush draw?
If the flush comes on the turn..........my first thought is to bet to keep others from drawing with a 4-flush. But what if you are raised on this bet? Do you call and then check on the river calling another bet
on the with a low flush? Do you fold? If someone else bets to you on the turn....do you raise to protect the pot more? Call?

I know the situation changes from hand to hand.....curious how others approach a very low flush draw when there are 5-6 other participants seeing the flop. An how you approach playing the flush if it hits on the
turn? Lastly, these type hands also must be much less worthwhile to see to the river as a draw all the time even with multi-way action relative to an A-any(suited)......because even though it may be a small percentage of the time.....you can hit the flush and lose the pot to a higher flush in a costly manner /forums/images/icons/frown.gif .....whereas playing the A-any(suited) you have the situation where you get a lot of additional bets from being able to raise and re-raise with at times a nut hand. /forums/images/icons/cool.gif

Peak

[travisand]

In late position I might raise the flop for the free card for my flush draw.

Once I made the flush I would pump the pot at every opportunity that I got until someone gave me good reason to slow down, like 3 betting my turn raise or something.

You have to remember that half of the reason you are involved in the hand in the first place is for the flush value, so when it comes you have to take advantage of it and get more money in the pot.

[DiamondDave]

Suited connectors can turn into a big hand in several ways:
1) you make full house (any two cards...)
2) you make a straight flush
3) you can make a flush that is not the nuts
4) you can make a straight that may be the nuts

If you're at a table where people are playing any suited face card, reason #3 is no longer a good reason to play suited connectors. Play your suited aces instead. Win a flush-over-flush-over-straight pot and smile big.

If you're playing in a tight game you can be pretty pleased if you end up with any flush. But in that kind of game drawing to flushes at every opportunity isn't a good strategy. (It's not a strong strategy in a soft ring game, either.) Fewer people put money in the pot, there is more raising, fewer showdowns, etc. So you only want to play suited cards that have other potential (draws to high pairs or a straight). Even then you should fold questionable hands in bad position or to raising.

Another benefit to playing certain suited hands in a tough game is that it's a built-in randomization device that does not depend on anything your opponents can observe. (They can observe your mood, if you've been winning, etc.) You don't want to play all your KJo, but maybe you want to be in with KJ some of the time. There are 12 ways to hold KJo but only 4 ways to hold KJs, so you'd play 25% of your KJ hands using this method.

[AceHigh]

"how should one play the low flush draw? "

Couple points: less than 25% of the hands dealt are suited, somewhere between 23-24%, I believe. So 10 handed only 2 or 3 suited hands are dealt a round on average. So it's not that likely someone else has a flush draw to the same suit as yours. You would also like to knock out players with hands like bare Ace or King of your suit, so they don't have redraws against you if you make your flush on the turn.

So the answer is: in large fields you want to play small flush draws aggressively.

[rigoletto]

If you're at a table where people are playing any suited face card, reason #3 is no longer a good reason to play suited connectors. Play your suited aces instead. Win a flush-over-flush-over-straight pot and smile big.

In any game as loose as described suited connectors are good. Not to play them for the fear of flush over flush is a mistake.

Because Hold'em is a community card game, it's actually less likely for two people to hold a flush then in any other kind of poker.

[ktnoah]

no matter your betting method, the flush with your 5-6 is going to cost you money in the long run. 5-6 suited is good for one thing.... the full-house or nut straight, which you can only afford to look for if your in late position and there are several callers. if you can't be more patient, you might as well go to the roulette wheel.

[rayrns]

I believe in HPFAP it is stated that playing 6-7s is a good play (to vary your play) from early position. My only attempt at that was in an online game .25/.50 yesterday. The flop was 7-7-6. When an 8 hit on the turn the action was strong. 2 players betting and raising and capping. I was just calling. Then when it was bet into me at showdown, I did my raise and the betting stopped. I took down the my largest (of very few) pot of the day and finished the session with a nice win (for a change). Now while this is not the norm, I am sure, it was a nice change. Will I try it again soon? No!! Buuuttt then again maybe I will!!