Nice post, Surf. I detoured the original intent of my question by making the board big for the purpose of removing my pair outs. I agree this looks like a clear check when the flop is big cards. I think it is more interesting when the flop is low. I tend to take the free card unless a big card hits the turn in which case I bet the turn trying to represent a paired overcard.
Against aggressive opponents I used to almost always take the free card and then usually call a river bet when my busted draw had showdown value. But in a response to one of my posts, Nikla made the following comment:
"Free cards heads up...yuck! I hope you didn't take them
"
and it really messed with me. Maybe he didn't mean it as a blanket statement, but it made me think that maybe I should routinely be firing again with my draws. What do you guys think?
Cartman