I saw this go down tonight & I'm seeing more & more of it. However, it was from a very good player last to act.

1/2NL ES-~$450

6 to the flop for $2; I'm in the BB with 75o

Flop: $12 raked 986 I have 9 hi str8

I check, Rec bets $25, TAG calls, I call.

Turn: $81 raked 9866

Checks around.

River: 98662

I check, Rec bets $50, I'm calling that, TAG raises to $150 & I'm folding to that. Rec folds & TAG [for some reason] shows his pocket 8s.

I'm also seeing it a lot from LP players who raise otf with a flush draw & when it comes in on the turn, checks or calls whatever the bet is & waits for the river to bomb.

Why are we not leading out on the flop or check-raising?

Presumably TAG villain views recreational villain and hero as weak and thinks the best place to get extra value is on the river.

Heads up checking the turn with a made hand can be a good idea. Checking the turn with what is likely the best made hand when it's multiway should be rare. The normal play for the TAG on the turn is to bet something to get value from 6X and draws. It looks like checking got him $50 but if he had bet $40 on the turn he gets at least one call and may get 2 then and possibly another bet on the river.

Flushes are a bit of a different situation because they are pretty obvious. Multiway it's usually only a flush that will bet the turn so checking and going for some small value on the river is often the only way to get called.

In any case you should be leading or check/raising flop. Your hand is very likely best then but with higher straight draws and flush draws it's fragile.

This hand was played poorly by all parties involved.

Because the TAG is very good [many an hr against him] & for him to call $25 in that small pot, he has something. I immediately feared that he thought to himself preflop: "What the heck, my T7s is suited & it's a limp fest tonight," but as it turned out, he later said, after showing his hand, "I thought you were looking to c/r that flop," so I read him as well as he read me. If he had folded, I would have c/r that Rec.

Are you seriously asking why a player would check a made hand on the turn after you checked a flopped straight with a FD on the board?

Right. If I had shoved otf, they both would have folded. Or, at least the TAG would have folded his set, knowing I have close to the nuts & he wasn't getting the right price. IF: the Rec folded. If the Rec calls my shove, I don't know. But we know only now that the Rec only had one pair.

Why the TAG raised so much otr is beyond me.

Mike, One thing I am good at is reading players & he [TAG] was extremely comfortable & I've played a lot with him. For all I know, the Rec came in with T7s going after the high hand promo.

There's no money in the pot otf!

You have the mortal nuts on the flop. If you want money in the pot...put it in there for Gods sakes!

The TAG was extremely comfortable with the 4th nuts on the flop? How were you feeling with the 2nd nuts? The biggest question is why are you making a post about a guy checking the second nuts on the turn when you checked the 2nd nuts on the flop?

I guess everyone trying to trap everyone else is a thing in 1/2?
Why the TAG raised so much on the river is beyond you? The bet was $50 and the pot was like $135 when it got to him. His raise to $150 is not that big. Especially with ES of $450.

SMH

Calling flop is fine
Not leading river is the biggest mistake itt

I should preface this by saying that in 2010, I had a smaller bankroll and I didn't have such a good sense of relative hand strength so I used to play this kind of non-nut straight a lot more like this. I used to be a lot more influenced by trying to avoid coolers. Thank God I grew out of that.

I'm going to assume we have 75.

On the flop, yes, it is possible that TAG villain flat called with T7,T7,T7:spad e: (3 combos).

But he could also have:
99 (3 combos)
88 (3 combos)
66 (3 combos)
98s (3 combos)
86s (2 combos)
A7,K7,Q7,J:clu b:7,JT,QJ,J T. (7 combos).

Total: 21 combos that we're beating.

Not building a pot on the flop is losing value.

Its better to lead out. If we check/raise we're not shoving. We make it 100 and hope for no club, T, 5, 9, 8, or 6.

I'm sorry, but this is just ridiculous. Literally every half-way decent player would do a happydance with a set of eights here when faced with a shove.

I would be extremely concerned about my image if people routinely start folding middle sets on drawy boards.

FWIW, I think checking the turn here with 88 is pretty bad. Just calling this rec's flop bet was obviously awful as well, but if he had a strong read that you were gonna check/raise (why would he have this read, though? Seems weird), then at least he had a reason for (not) doing what he did. I still think he's probably not "a very good player" at all. Why you did anything you did here in this hand is also beyond me.

So much this. Catastrophe level errors.

Correct. It suggests the very good TAG villain who we've played many an hour against has almost never seen us play monster draws aggressively.