DECISION POINT: You are in a Tournament where blinds are 100/200 with a 200 big blind ante. The Under the Gun player raises to $500, both Middle Position players call, and you call from the Hijack with 7♦9♦. The flop comes 3♦J♣T♦. UTG checks, MP1 bets 1,500 and MP2 calls. Action is on you, what do you do here?

PRO ANSWER: We are playing in a multi-table tournament with blinds at 100/200 with a 200 big blind ante. We call a preflop raise in position with 97 suited after 2 callers. Multiway on the 3dJcTd flop the original raiser checks, MP1 bets, and MP2 calls. We flopped a flush draw and have some decisions to make.

When holding a draw and facing a bet, the first step we should take is to calculate our pot odds. In this case, there is 5,500 already in the pot and it costs us 1,500 to call. If we choose to call, there will be 7,000 total in the pot going to the turn. Without taking into account any future betting, if we hit our draw 1500/7000 or about 21% of the time, this call should show a profit.

We have a flush draw and gutshot straight draw, so we have 12 outs. Using the Rule of 2, we have about a 24% chance of hitting on the turn (12 x 2 = 24). Even if we discount the jack of diamonds as an out (since it pairs the board), we still have a 22% chance of hitting on the turn. Since our chance of hitting is greater than our break-even equity given the pot odds, calling with our draw is profitable.

This eliminates folding as an option, since calling will be more profitable. What about raising?

One of the primary benefits of raising would be to induce folds from your opponents. This is known as fold equity. Since this is a multiway pot (4 players on the flop), the chance of getting all of our opponents to fold is lower than if there were fewer opponents. Raising would often simply put more money into the pot when we are behind.

Since getting all of our opponents to fold to a raise is less likely, we should take the profitable pot odds we are getting and call the flop bet with our draw.

Calling is the best play.