Villain is in low 20s and Hero has been playing with him for about 4 hours. He's shown cards at showdown only twice, once was for a small pot I don't remember too well and another was the following: Villain raises to $12 preflop in LP, I call, and EP calls. Flop comes 975o, EP and I check, Villain bets $20, EP goes all in for $100, I fold, Villain snap calls. Turn 5, River J, Villain turns over J10o and takes down the pot against EP's bluff. He literally called with J-high and a gut shot getting 1.5-to-1. Very strange hand.

Villain is sitting with $500 and I have ~$575
Preflop. UTG+1 limps, I limp with 67, Villain raises to $7, 2 callers, UTG+1 calls, I call. Five to the flop, pot is $35.

Flop comes AJK. Hero leads out with a $25 bet, Villain calls, 1 limper calls. Pot is $105.

Turn 2. Hero lead out with $60 bet. Villain calls, other folds. Two to the river.

River 7 Hero?

Bet 140-150, and yes I would call if he shoves over the top. Sucks that you got coolered

Bet bigger on turn $70-85.
Bet river - The chances of him having a flush are very marginal, so you need to bet for value to get him to call with his 2pr and set-type hands, and he may not even be that strong. Bet $125-150, towards the lower end if you don't think he's that strong.

Tricky part comes if you get raised. I think you probably have to tank call bc villain could be raising with lots of 2pr and set type hands, but you haven't given us enough history for me to really say for sure.

Could a check/raise be better than a bet here?

This high card flop smacks villain's range. It's possible he's slowplaying 2 pair or better, or it's possible he was on a draw. If he whiffed on a draw, he's not calling a river bet, but he could try to bluff. If he was slowplaying, then when we check he's probably not going to miss a river bet if he has a good hand. If he bets big we can shove over it.

I think betting is better if one of the following is true:

1) He has a lot of 1 pair hands in his range that will call another bet but will check behind if checked to. AQ might be such a hand, or maybe KQ/QJ with the Q.

So if we think this is true, we should not be betting to target 2 pair or sets; we should bet to target 1 pair hands. Maybe $85 is a good bet size? You offer about 4:1 pot odds, which could get a call from a weak hand. Plus if villain was slowplaying 2 pair or a set (or a straight), he might raise for what he thinks is value.

2) He will check behind 2 pair hands because he's scared of the flush. If you think that's true, then you definitely need to bet here, and I'd probably go with the bigger sizing others have already suggested.

3) He will bet, but his bet might be undersized and then he might fold to the check/raise. Do you have any reads on his bet sizing? I'd rather make a bigger bet than induce a smaller bet followed by a fold.

So I think it's up to you, OP, to figure out whether any of these is true at the table. I think it is read-dependent.

As others have said, I'm not afraid of a bigger flush. If I lose my stack here, so be it.

i mean he had to flop the royal or have 910hh/89hh to beat you here and im not 100% if hed be too comfortable jamming here, he seems like he'll call big bets with mediocre holdings. i would bet the turn 75-85 and bomb river.

or if you think he will react to a small bet with a raise then i would do that to induce. he may have Qhx and feel like he cant win the pot unless he bluffs and try something dumb. or if he has Ax or 2 pair+ he doesnt feel like just calling a small bet and he'll want to raise for value. so you can do something like bet 35 or something i wouldnt bet any bigger than 40 because monetarily 50ish looks big in some peoples eyes.

I would either check or bomb river; your pick. I would check only if I felt really good about him having a nonmade hand with Qhearts and that he can bluff. So I am checking 10% of the time, and bombing the rest. I like $170 as it may look like a busted polarized hand. Villains arent good enough to fold better than 1 pair hands here and I would target that range. Sucks if he has a higher flush

bet more, bet everywhere more.

yeah you have a low flush, howeva, the vast majority of flushes aren't really there. Think about it. There's a lot more people who call with suited aces, kings, jacks than rando t7s. Furthermore there's a ton more ace high flushes then ten high available.

Also, people don't fold 2pr+, and villain has 2pr+

BOMB BOMB BOMB GET VALUE

yeah, sequence needs to go $30, 80, $180-200

Thanks for the replies guys. I ended up checking the river and Villain bet $125. I called and he flipped over Qh10h for the royal.. Guess it's a cooler but I like leading out on the river since I'd be ahead of Villain's range most of the time

wow!!! results oriented but it worked out ok. If you bet/call you may have lost your stack