DECISION POINT: You are in a live $5/$10 cash game where most of the stacks are $1,000. It is early in the session, however you’ve observed both the Small Blind and Big Blind to be competent players. It folds to you in the Hijack and you raise to $25 (the standard table raise) with J♥T♥ and the Big Blind calls. The Big Blind checks the Q♣9♥2♦ flop, you bet $30 and they call. On the T♠ turn your opponent checks and action is on you.

What do you do here?

PRO ANSWER: We are playing in a live $5/$10 cash game. Most of the stacks are around $1,000 and the standard table raise has been between $25-$30. It’s early in the session, but we’ve been able to pick up some reliable information from observing the action that both the Small Blind and Big Blind are competent opponents.

Action folds around to us in the Hijack seat with J♥T♥ and we make the table standard first-in raise to $25. The Cutoff, Button, and Small Blind fold and the Big Blind flat calls our open. The flop of Q♣9♥2♦ is great for our hand, bringing an open-ended straight draw plus a backdoor flush draw.

Our opponent is a solid player and they continue with the appropriate line of checking the flop when first to act after defending the Big Blind. As the initial raiser we have a fairly significant range advantage on this flop. It’s extremely likely that the Big Blind would 3-bet all of the big overpairs and Qx broadway combos. We still have all of these combinations in our range and are uncapped on this flop, additionally we also hold a slight nut advantage due to having more combinations of QQ. It is important to note however that the Big Blind will have 22 more often and both ranges will share 99/Q9s combos.

Given the substantial range advantage we should be c-betting this spot with a high frequency, but just how often can we fire this flop?

Taking a deep dive into this spot with the help of a GTO solver we see that c-betting is preferred with nearly 80% of the Hijack’s range. In addition to the outputs from the solver confirming our instinct to bet this flop, our specific hand JhTh flopped considerable equity in addition to future semi-bluffing opportunities. We bet slightly more than half pot ($30) and the Big Blind calls.

The turn is the T♠ giving us second pair but negatively impacting the strength of our draws. Now any straight we hit will put four to a straight on the board and our straight will no longer be the absolute best possible hand. It may seem counterintuitive, however even though our hand improved in absolute terms, this card is far better for our opponent’s range than ours. The Big Blind checks and we have a decision to make.

Many players make the mistake of thinking that just because they bet the flop and their hand improved, a bet on the turn is now mandatory. This turn card, even though we now have a pair of tens to go only with the straight draw, is a clear sign to slow down. Our hand no longer wants to play a big pot when it improves to a straight, and this card is better for the Big Blind’s range. We would prefer a position to try and fully realize our equity rather than continuing to put money in on the turn, which could mean we have to make some tough river decisions with a bluff catcher if the Big Blind leads the river.

Even after taking these potentially tough river decisions into consideration, slowing down is still preferred, as our opponent has an equity edge and our hand won’t have the absolute strength to play for stacks in the majority of cases when we do hit our draws.

Checking is the best play.