DECISION POINT: In a live $1/$3 cash game the Under the Gun player open limps and you raise to $20 from MP1 with A♠A♥. The action folds to the Button who calls, the Blinds fold, and the UTG limper calls. The flop comes A♦K♣6♦ and UTG bets $25. You raise to $125, the Button calls, and UTG folds. The turn is 7♦ and action is on you.

What do you do here?

PRO ANSWER: We are playing a $1/$3 cash game. Most of the players have around $300 in front of them except for the Button who has $500. We’ve doubled up early and start the hand with $600 and are dealt AsAh in the MP1 seat. The Under the Gun player open limps for $3 and action is on us.

We have a no-brainer raise here, the only real question is to how much. By default we want to raise the standard table raise amount that thins the field and add one big blind ($3) to the standard raise amount. In $1/$3 live cash games that can mean a total raise size of $15-$20. In this instance we use the high end of that range and elect to raise to $20. Everyone folds to the Button who cold calls and the UTG player also calls, closing the action.

The flop is AdKc6d and the UTG player leads for $25. With top set we could make a case for slow playing here, however the board is very draw heavy and hits our range quite well. The coordinated properties of the board make it so we don’t want to allow both players to see the turn card for cheap. Given this board massively favors our range and the UTG player lead into us anyway, it is less likely that they’re making a pure bluff so we can get some value out of a raise here.

We make it $125, the Button calls and UTG folds. Both of these actions are somewhat surprising as cold calling $125 on this board gives the Button a narrow, condensed range and the UTG player was getting good pot odds to call. The turn is the 7d, bringing in a potential flush.

There are flush draws potentially in the Button’s range, but cold calling $125 with just a flush draw would be a pretty big mistake on their part, so most of the flush draws in their range should be hands like KdQd or JdTd/QdJd that had either a pair or a combo draw. The Button’s hand range also consists of some hands like 66 or AQ and some AJs combos here as well. Even if our opponent is calling on the flop incorrectly with more flush draws it’s likely that would be offset by calling with other non-flush draws including Ax combos and maybe some Kx or JTs without diamonds.

A common mistake people make, particularly in lower stakes games, is not going for value thin enough. Even when our opponent does have the flush here we have ~20% equity since we have 10 outs to improve to a full house or hit quads. We don’t really want to give a free card to any combos that could contain a diamond.

While we are sometimes losing a huge amount to a flush if we check here, we are unlikely to be folding. When we do check it enables the Button to get value with all the hands that beat us, draw for free when behind, and lose the minimum when they’re behind. Betting in spots like these is crucial for maximizing value in the long term.

Betting (around half pot) is the best play.