DECISION POINT: In a live 6-max cash game with $1-2 blinds, the action folds to you in the Cutoff and you raise to $6 (the table standard) with J♦T♥. The Button folds, the Small Blind calls, and the Big Blind folds. The Small Blind checks the J♣T♠A♣ flop and action is on you, what do you do here?

PRO ANSWER: We are playing in a $1/$2 6-max cash game with roughly $200 effective stacks. We have no significant reads on the table and everyone seems to be playing fairly solid. Action folds around to us in the Cutoff. We are dealt JdTh and make a standard raise to $6. The Button folds, the Small Blind cold calls, and the Big Blind folds.

The flop is JcTsAc and the Small Blind checks. This is a spot where many players are tempted to slowplay their hand. Two-pair is a big hand that you often want to play a large pot with postflop. However, when deciding if you should slowplay there are quite a few factors to consider.

In this case a key factor that we should focus on is relative hand strength versus absolute hand strength. Even though we have two-pair on the flop in this spot the board is very coordinated. Any ace, club, king, or queen is a scare card for both us and potentially for our opponent. That breaks down to 11 clubs, 3 aces, 3 non-club kings, and 3 non-club queens for a total of 20 cards, or nearly half the deck.

By slowplaying here, not only do we risk losing the pot when we are ahead, we also risk losing action from many hands that would call us on the flop but may fold or slow down significantly on many turn and river cards.

If this board were JT2 rainbow there may be some merit to slowplaying a hand as strong as top-two pair. That being said, even if we did have top two-pair, hands like KQ/98s are well within our opponent’s range and the current stack depths in relation to the pot don’t often favor slowplaying.

On this particular board we want to both protect our hand and get money in now, when we’re likely ahead.

Continuation betting (around $10) is the best play.