"Assuming the board isn't paired, if you are getting 5 or 6-1 for each additional bet on your 1.86-1 shot, can't you afford to lose to a better flush part of the time?"


Let me just address this one point. Yes, you are correct. But there is more to this than what Carson addresses.


I agree that if you are there on the flop and you know that you will get five or six way action and that it will go two or three bets you have just played a theoretically profitable round. But Carson describes games where it also may go two or three (and sometimes more) bets before the flop, and he completely ignores play on the turn where it can also go two or three bets where you uncompleted flush draw is now getting severely punished.


What this means is that you need to think through the whole package of playing rounds before you decide to play any two suited cards. If you can get in cheaply, can anticipate several players if you do flop a flush draw, and can also anticipate a moderately passive turn most of the time assuming you miss your draw on the flop, then I agree that you can play more suited hands than normal. But that is not what this book describes.


I hope this helps.