Straight draw

[soah]

Early Saturday morning, live 2-5 game.

I limp with JTs from early position because half the table is old geezers that don't understand the "no" part of no limit. Other people limp. Flop is Q9x with two clubs. My cards are diamonds. I'm gonna call a bet that someone makes, so I just bet it myself for deception. I bet $25 and get three callers. Oops. That's too many. Flop is a brick and I check because there's too many people in the pot. Guy two seats to my left who has been at the table for some 12 hours (I've been there longer) and has a massive $1500 stack despite the fact that I'm better than him (this is a $200 capped buy-in game) bets $50. The geezer next to him calls again quickly and I just freaking know that two of my outs make him a flush. Whoever else was in the hand goes away now. I sit there and agonize because I only have six outs but dammit look at my pot odds, and I still have money left to use on the river. I finally call and get the 8 of spades on the river. I sit there and don't know what the hell to do; the dealer points at me a second time and wants me to do something and I say I'm thinking, then I pull out two big stacks of red and bet $200, and as soon as I do it I know I've royally [censored] up the hand because there's no way in hell the guy on my left is calling that bet after what I did on the turn, and the geezer just has a busted flush draw.

Where did I go wrong in this hand?

[DoomSlice]

For one thing I don't understand why you don't want people in the hand when you've got a draw to the nuts. For second thing the way you play it on the turn almost gaurantees that you won't get paid on the river. For third thing the river bet will make everyone stop and think until they know exactly what you have - check-raise here and if no one bets it then oh well, cause you weren't getting any callers anyway. Another option is to extremely underbet the pot... but I'd rather not show my hand after playing like that (and in that regard your play accomplishes that nicely).

[TheWorstPlayer]

Well, I definitely think this is a situation to mix up your play. If you play your draws the same every time, you will never get paid off. So this time you decided to lead and then check/call. Fine. It happens. If they price you in on the turn, fine. The pot was laying you odds to call, so you called. Once you hit on the river, you won the amount in the pot which was all you needed. Anything else is icing on the cake. I would just make a small value bet and hope the guy without the busted flush draw calls it. The old guy is not gonna bluff his busted flush draw, so checking doesn't gain anything from him. If you think the big stacked dude is going to value bet the river, then you can check/raise him which is certainly the better option if he is aggressive, but if he is the type to wimp out on the river and check behind, then there is nothing to gain from him by checking either.

An alternative line might have been to lead out again on the turn, but to price yourself into your draw. I find that that often looks like someone who has TP or maybe even mid-pair and thinks they might be good but are a bit unsure. Against passive opponents, even if they have TP beat, you will often not see a raise. Then you can check on the river ("Oh no, they called my flop bet and my turn bet, they must have my TP beat.") and then check/raise them.

But I think you played it fine except for betting too big on the river, for value. For metagame purposes, though, if this bet is intended to disguise large bluffs (particularly against this big stacked guy) in the future, then it is good.

[soah]

You've pretty much summed up the things I was thinking. The guy on my left isn't betting unless he hit something [censored] huge, and I don't have any reason to suspect that he did. And the geezer ain't bluffing into two of us with a busted draw. Underbetting the turn is a possibility but it would be very out of character for me. I'd never do that if I had a real hand. And since two of my outs were dead I wasn't left with much of a draw anyway. Meh. I guess I bet less on the river next time. If he has a set or something he'll probably come over the top anyway.