[tewall]

The two concepts are only apparnetly in conflict. With the nut flush draw you want to get money in the pot given enough opponents. This increases your gain on the average.

With a made hand, if you don't bet then the opponent with the flush draw gets infinite odds. So it's to the advantage of the made hand to bet in order charge the drawing hands.

Given n opponents, only one of them has a made hand. (made in this context is synonomous with best) The others are all drawing. If the one with the made hand doesn't bet, all the others could get infinite odds if no one bets. Of the ones that are drawing, some drawing hands have better odds than others. Some of the drawing hands may have odds so good that they actually benefit as more money gets in the pot. Others just have good enough odds to call because of the dead money already in the pot. Others don't have odds and should get out.

Here's and example. Say the betting goes crazy pre-flop so there's 40 small bets in the pot at the flop. There's so much money in the pot that anyone with any sort of draw at all should stay in, so all would have odds to call, because of the dead money already in the pot. The best hand should bet to charge all the chasing hands a premium (and hoping that they will incorrectly drop out, if they have odds to chase). The better drawing hands should bet themselves (or raise) because their odds are good enough that they are building a pot for themselves as incremental money goes in. It's possible for everyone putting money in the pot to be playing correctly.

In real life people often chase when they don't have odds, so betting or raising with made hands or good draws is even more profitable.

Good question!