Did I play this hand right?

[superflyam]

The other night, I'm on the button and get dealt J-Ts (of spades). The player UTG calls, 3 hands fold, 1 calls, I call, and then both blinds stay in. No raises pre-flop. The flop comes 9s-Qs-Ks, so I have flopped the nut straight flush. All of the other 4 players in the hand check, I bet, everyone folds, and I'm left winning 5 bets with a flopped straight flush. Should I have slowplayed this hand?

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

with 2 Broadway cards on the board, I'd probably check behind and see what develops on the turn.

[Nottom]

I was in a similar situation once with KJs. I bet and had one person call me on the flop and turn, nothing exciting.

I think a bet is best here. Basically you are praying that someone has the Ace, or a set or something here. There is a section in HEFAP (I assume its in the slowplaying section, but can't remember) that mentions that you should play your real monster hands fast because you get them so rarely that you need to give yourself the opportunity to collect a big pot, and the only time that will happen is against another strong hand.

This reminds me of another post that was on here where the poster flopped Quad 9s against Aces full, The Aces hit their one outer on the turn and neither of them bet until the river. This is what you don't want to happen when you have a monster hand. If your opponent flopped the nut flush or had a set and filled on the turn, I guarantee you aren't asking weather you should have bet the flop.

[rtrombone]

It's rarely correct to slowplay, but sometimes you absolutely have to. When you have the deck crippled (you have KQ and the flop is KKQ) or when a free card is unlikely to hurt you but can easily give somebody a second best hand (you have 88 in an unraised pot and the flop is K 8 2 rainbow), you should almost always slowplay and hope that somebody makes some kind of hand. In the KQ example, you want someone to make a straight or flush. If you're lucky, somebody with a pocket pair will spike an underfull. And the person with the case king may also make a boat (of course, this player would call a flop bet). In the 88 example, you're hoping an ace comes, giving somebody top pair. Or another king or deuce, giving somebody trips.

It's important that you had the button. Your flop check may have induced a turn bet from someone who made a hand or decided to take a stab at the pot. You could have raised right there or waited until the river.

Many people with middle or bottom pair (maybe even top pair) will fold to a flop bet. But if they make trips at the turn, they will often see the river. If a 4th spade comes at the turn, somebody with a medium spade may now decide to look you up, whereas he would not have called a flop bet.

Sure, you lose action when another guy has the ace high flush and two other people have sets, but checking is going to be the superior play pretty much every time, IMHO. (If you have a set you should be betting the flop, anyways.) The bets you gain at the turn and river will outweigh the missed flop bets in the long run.

[Aragorn]

I'm inclined to check in this situation. The flop is scary to many weaker hands.

The problem is there aren't too many cards on the turn which will help anyone very much. If another spade comes, people with smaller spades are not likely to put a lot of money in with them. And if someone had the ace of spades they probably wouldn't have folded.

The only real reason to check is to try to induce a bluff. And when it gets checked around on the flop, someone is likely to give it a shot.

[Ed Miller]

Next time you should make the flop Q98 instead of KQ9. You should get much more action with that flop.