Amusing AKs hand

[Aaron W.]

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flop, yeah check, but it doesn't matter too much whether you bet or check. betting is far from bankroll suicide. you're pretty unlikely to get raised here anyway (and if the lag raises you, you may have protected your [best] hand). the main benefit of checking is that you may get a free card with less than the winning hand if someone is scared to bet a weak one.

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It matters quite a bit. If you put in two bets, you're often up against a pair. Taking the standard 1/2 factor on overcard outs in multiway pots, you've got 2.5-3 overcard outs depending on how much you fear the flush. You can add back a little for the backdoor flush draw, but you're still looking at about 4 outs, which means you've got something like 16% equity. You take a major loss by putting in two bets on this flop.

Why are you unlikely to get raised? There are lots of draws out there for players to shoot for free cards and the 9-high isn't so ragged that you it's likely to miss 5 players. Remember that it was a limped pot that I raised from the big blind, so you can't eliminate any hands by thinking they were cold callers.

Why do you think you have the best hand when LAGgy villain raises? You can't reasonably assume that Ace-high is best in a 5-handed pot.

The main benefit to checking is to avoid putting in unnecessary extra bets when you have the worst hand.