Quickie.

Live 20 game with a lot of bad players. Specific reads are lacking because it was a 7 handed pot and I mean...yeah. Two of them are decent, 1 is weak tight, the rest are standard loose and bad.

4 limps and I raise K Q Blinds both call, all the limpers call.

A Q 6

6 checks to me and I check. Awful or reasonably ok?

Wtf, awful.

I think I would give my left testicle to be able to play live limit in Cali.

Anyways, I think your check here is pretty bad. By checking you allow a free card to weak draws and weaker pairs into an already decent sized 14sb pot. Also, you're allowing the possibility of a hand that folds on the flop to improve and have live outs on the turn. Too many good things happen when you bet, and it's only a 1sb investment into a pot you should aggressively be trying to win. Sure, most likely someone has an ace, but by betting against (I'm assuming) weak loose-passive players they'll c/c flop and check to you on the turn and you can decide to take a free card. Worst case scenario, you get check raised and then have to draw to your 5 pair outs + 2 bd outs.

What are you going to do if you check flop and ep/mp player bets turn?
If it's one bet back you're going to put in twice the money with less equity. Two bets back to you and you're going to fold wishing that you had bet flop so it would be checked to you again giving you a much better option.

You could probably bet this on every street and get paid off by some moronic pocket 5s or 4s.

i'd definitely bet then go from there

If you're HU with a decent player, then I can see checking here because you'd be WA/WB on this very dry board with not much risk giving a free card to most of the hands vs. you that have 2-3 outs. But when you're in a large multiway pot, you must must bet this hand. Collectively they have tons of outs against you, and even if you're behind to an A, you'll get a chance to take a free card on the turn because bad aces love to c/c every street.

fight the demon that tells you "one of them must have an ace"

bet everytime in this situation

That's a rough start.

They're not loose-passive. At least three of them will check raise with an ace. For more about the generic game texture of the this 20 game...well, I dunno, maybe some regulars could expound. At the time this hand occurred I had 3 racks on the table and was in 4th chip position of 9. It is an aggressive game in general, and we had two known maniacs at the table who were in this hand.

Plan was to try to get to showdown against this field for 2 big bets (which coincidentally I achieved).

If it's two bets back to me, no, I won't wish I had bet the flop. I'll be glad I didn't because I'd have gotten check-raised then had a tough decision to make as to whether or not to make a 2 big bet call down in a gigantic pot that I'm winning like never.

Thanks for the thoughts guys. When I checked it felt dirty and I figured that's the static I'd get here by posting the hand. My logic was that in a 14 bet pot anybody with any piece is gonna call anyway (any gutter or pair) so I couldn't protect my hand. I realize I still need to charge those hands to draw, but I felt not doing so was a small, not huge, mistake as I couldn't get them to fold.

I think this might be a salient difference between commerce and my 20 game. I get check/raised by weak aces a lot.

Getting c/r by a weak Ace is not a bad thing.

ugh very bad logic here imo... sure they won't fold a decent piece , but basically getting them to fold practically anything in a 14SB pot is good. this pot is big enough that you're going to see the river almost every time, but its ok to fold if its obvious you're beat. that's no excuse for not betting..

Indeed not. Among other things, it can improve your equity in the pot! Would an early-position checkraise from a weak ace get someone in the middle holding TJ to fold? If so, it buys you three more outs than you otherwise would have.

Moreover, in the games I play in, a checkraise will come from a player holding a hand like QJ or QT ... or 67.

Besides, think of how much things might change if the J or T should fall on the turn. (Or any club, or any J or T.) Yes the board is relatively dry, but your backdoor draws add some strength to your hand.

You have a royal frush draw. Bet it.

Fine fine fine guys. I'll bet next time. Thanks

I did win the pot when 67s barreled into me on the next two streets.

Jesse, do you play for a living? Just curious since you post a ton of hands.

I feel that checking here would only make sense HU. You gotta bet, if not for value than to find out cheapy if there is an ace out there.

It's his first day on the job...

well i asked because i feel that the majority of posters have real jobs and play poker as a side income/lucrative hobby.

I am always a little impressed when I hear of someone who can play limit poker full time as a job. The grind and swings would kill me if I did not have a stable income to fall back on.

Yup. Hold the A K Q and pitch the offsuit Q and 6. That's if we're playing a full-pay Deuces machine. On a Jacks or Better machine, though, I think you're better off holding the guaranteed payoff of the two Qs and drawing to trips or better. (I know the Deuces Wild moves by heart, but I never bothered to learn Jacks or Better.)

OP--

I'm going to disagree with some people here. Not that checking is OK--I don't think it is--but I think checking this hand HU is horrible whereas checking it multiway is less bad.

All my best,

--Nate

True. Quit job yesterday, playing full time for 6 weeks....After that I might end up back in a cube, but there is a chance this will stick. If I run like last night I'll retire by the time I'm 30.

I think checking heads up would be uber awful as well and would never consider it.