flopped nut flush, then almost gave it away

Playing 5-10 at B&M last night; in MP, am dealt AdQd. I'm down to my last $70 and have been swinging and missing all night with AK and AQ. Plus, two loose players are behind me, one of which is very LAG, so I limp. Two players to my left (including the LAG) limp as well. Then the button raises to $10. All three of us call.

The flop is a beautiful 7d-3d-9d. I mentally flog myself for failing to raise preflop, then check, planning to check-call the flop and check-raise the turn. Everyone checks to the button, who bets. All three of us call.

Turn is a--uh-oh--3. I stick with the strategy and check again. Check, check to the button, who--whoops--checks himself.

River is a--#@*!%--9.

Now LAG bets out. Button folds. I call, sickened. Other player folds.

Turns out LAG had neither a 9 nor 3--he was betting his ace high, and I won the pot after sheepishly turning over my flush.

Aside from failing to raise preflop (for the reasons I already stated), should I have check-raised the flop, at the risk of losing the LAG and the other player? Should I have led the turn after the board paired the first time? I had put the button on an overpair, which was likely given the board at that point, and didn't expect him to check behind me.

i bet the flop, turn, and call the river.

[Catt]

Your reasons for not raising pre-flop are silly. They are not "reasons" - they are tilt. Raise, especially with loose players behind you.

No, you should not have check-raised the flop. You should have lead the flop hoping that button would raise and trap the entire field for two. If he does raise, you might consider calling and leading again on the turn instead of three-betting -- depends on how you think the field reacts to such plays.

You should be leading the turn regardless of whether you three-bet the flop, smooth-called button's raise, or didn't even get raised on the flop at all.

You should lead the river; if you're checking, you should probably check-raise the river with more than one player and raise even the LAG if he is not capable of bet-folding his bluff. Edit Didn't see that the river double-paired the board with all those $%#%$%$ on the action -- ck-calling or bet-calling is fine depending on how the hand played out and how LAGgy / tricky the LAG is (i.e., can he raise less than a FH with any frequency? If yes, bet-call better than ck-cl).

Look, I know I should have raised preflop, but I was tired of raising, seeing a blank flop, making the continuation bet, missing again on the turn, betting there, missing again on the river. . . AK and AQ had been drawing nothing for me that night. Any other time, I raise preflop.

Your point about leading the flop with the idea of trapping the other two is well taken, however. I wish I'd considered that. Had the button raised, I believe the correct play would have been to call (hoping the other two stayed in), then lead the turn after seeing the board pair the first time.

Thanks for the input.

[Catt]

Just applying a little tough love.

[ QUOTE ]
Look, I know I should have raised preflop, but I was tired of raising, seeing a blank flop, making the continuation bet, missing again on the turn, betting there, missing again on the river. . . AK and AQ had been drawing nothing for me that night. Any other time, I raise preflop.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not to belabor the point, but this should be instantly recognizable as tilt to you. If you do recognize it, taking a break or calling it a night would be wise. If you don't recognize this as tilt . . . well, just take it under consideration that anytime you're making plays that you know are incorrect at the time, you're tilting. Also, depending on the flop, your position, the number of players in the hand, etc. don't feel the need to make a continuation bet everytime, and certainly don't feel the need to bet a blank turn, too, when you've got callers to your flop bet.

[Bob T.]

[ QUOTE ]
Look, I know I should have raised preflop, but I was tired of raising, seeing a blank flop, making the continuation bet, missing again on the turn, betting there, missing again on the river. . . AK and AQ had been drawing nothing for me that night. Any other time, I raise preflop.


[/ QUOTE ]

Its all one long fricken game. If you would do something any other time, you should probably do it this time.

If you had raised preflop, you might have recieved three or four to one on almost all of the money that you started the hand with.

[Bob T.]

One other thing to think about, is that it is considerably easier to seperate players from multiple small bets than it is to seperate them from multiple big bets. And a whole bunch of small bets adds up.

If you ever get to watch very good players play, the first thing you notice, is how much action they put in on the flop.

[W. Deranged]

You really should be betting this flop. People love to throw in small bets on the flop with tons of junk. Once you get to the big bet streets, the riffraff tend to disperse, and you will have lost a lot of customers.

In multiway pots when you hit monsters, just go ahead and bet. There is usually more to be gained by getting small bets from a lot of people instead of waiting until the big streets to get a few big bets from fewer people.

And raise this pre-flop. The presence of lags behind you is kind of good. They'll probably call and help build a big pot. If they raise and shut people out, whatever, you have a strong hand and there's nothing wrong with playing a short-handed pot against a couple of lagtastic types holding AQs.