[StellarWind]

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BTW, I'm not sure I like the flop call.

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Part-and-parcel of the just-call approach to BB defense is you have to at least call the flop autobet most of the time. Otherwise you actually do wind up in that weak-tight trap where you fold too many hands.

A large part of what 3-betting accomplishes for many players is it forces them to stay in with marginal hands until at least the turn and often longer. The key here is that when you are heads up with high cards you just have to stop folding. Unless the flop is a disaster call the stealer's flop bet. If you are the stealer and get 3-bet out of the blinds, call his flop autobet.

How do you feel when you take the initiative preflop, miss the flop, and your autobet is flatcalled? It's very uncomfortable. Do you give the free card or do you bluff again now that the bet size has doubled?

The funny thing is the bad players do this naturally. It's the (almost) good players who fold everytime they don't know where they stand.

You are basically right that calling the flop with KJ overcards and a backdoor flush draw is a small Sklansky mistake if he has an ace or a pair. But he can't see my cards and he may make a bigger mistake in a moment. Either he gives me a lot of undeserved free cards and my loose flop calls are more than justified or he loses a fortune in unsuccessful bluffs, losing value bets, and checkraises.

Think of it this way. I didn't put an extra bet in preflop at even money odds. That means I budgeted right then to use those saved chips to call the flop autobet no matter what the flop is. On average it's the same even-money proposition because the flop could be anything.

Of course that's an oversimplification. If the flop is really ugly I use my judgment to fold and save the bet. If the flop is good then I can further sting him with the checkraise. That's how I recover with interest the EV I lost by not 3-betting preflop. But most of the time I need to call and reassess after I see the turn. If you can't bear to do this then go back to the 3-bet crutch because you fold too much. Actually I also call most of my good hands to save them for the turn. There are so many hands that warrant slightly loose flop calls (including many low-card hands that no one would 3-bet preflop) that the pressure is really on not to give free cards on the turn and in practice most players rarely do. So I save as many strong hands as I can to cash in by checkraising the turn.

The need to make these loose calls is one of the biggest adjustments I had to make when I moved from 3/6 full to 5/10 6-max.