[jskills]

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I think if you are going to check this flop with this many people you should be doing so with the intention of check raising to thin the field. I like the rest though.

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Why thin the field on a drawless board like this (at the time of the flop at least).

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(A) The board is not drawless - anybody with a 7 has an open-ended str8 draw.
(B) Yes, you do not want to thin the field. You will only be thinning the field of thinks like AQo, which have zero chance of beating you. Anybody with a 7, as well as overpairs (which can beat you) will still call. In other words, you would only be thinning field of those people who can't beat you while those who can would remain. Thinning the field is a BAD idea.

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This is correct. The only hands you can protect against are hands that are drawing dead/very very thin. The hands you want to fold are almost never folding (except, maybe, gutshots, but trapping them for multiple bets certainly isn't bad). On the flop with a set you have the best hand AND best draw like 99.9% of the time, so if you're ever in doubt about which line to take, I wouldn't worry about protection. Take the line that gets the most bets in from the most number of people.

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Not sure if you guys are agreeing with the check-raise the flop idea, but check raising the flop is awful here.

If you want to get the most bets in from the most number of peoeple, check raising directly after the preflop raiser bets and making the rest of the field face two bets cold is NOT the way to accomplish that. It makes them all fold and get the hand heads up. We do not want that on this type of flop.

The correct line, as pointed out by several posters (Shant, Entity) is to simply bet out on the flop, get everyone to call one bet behind you, and hope the preflop raiser will raise the flop, thus bringing the rest of the field along for another bet.

BTW: The flop can be considered drawless in that most people calling a preflop raise aren't entering with a 7 in hand. I was not concerned about anyone holding a 7 at all. It was when the 7 fell on the turn that things got interesting.