A♥Q♠ on the Flop Multi-way, what do you do here?

AQ on the flop multiway.gif

Decision Point: In a tournament, it folds to MP1 who calls, you raise from MP2 with A♥Q♠. The Hijack calls, the Button calls, MP1 calls. The Flop is 9♠9♣5♣. MP1 checks. Action is on you, what do you do here?

Pro Answer: We are in a live tournament with medium stacks around the table. After a single player limped into the pot in front of us, we raised holding a premium hand (AQ). However, our raise failed to thin the field and we got two more callers in addition to the limper, creating a 4-way pot going to the flop.

This flop, despite having a flush draw present, is relatively dry due to the fact that it’s a paired board. Paired boards are more difficult to connect with compared to unpaired boards, since there are now fewer cards in the deck that connect with it.

After it checks to us, our continuation betting strategy must take into account the number of players that saw the flop.

In this case, with 3 opponents, a continuation bet will fail to take down the pot uncontested often enough to show a long term profit. Therefore, we should check and be willing to fold this hand. We cannot profitably fight the multiway nature of this pot.

Checking and being willing to fold is the best play.

How would you play it?
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