Blinds are $1-$2, but game is $2-$100 spread-limit, where the most you can bet or raise is $100 over the previous bet.

HERO open-raises to $12 from UTG2 with JhTh. MP2, LJ, CO and Button all call it and we are 5-way to a flop.

Hero has a $1500 stack and covers everyone. The other players in this hand are all sitting between $200 and $300.

Flop: QhQs9h ($60)

We have an open-ended straight flush draw but are first to act with four other players in the hand.

Hero……?


EDIT: Hero covertly steals a glance at the Progressive Board and notes that a Heart straight flush would pay out $280 today.

Hero is doing well tonight. Built up a nice stack with your $100 dollar bets, I see.
I don't think it matters too much what you do, because for me, I'm not folding to any $100 max bet with this sweet hand.
I wouldn't want to check as the pf raiser in UTG2, because it could check around, paired like it is. I'd want to start building some kind of pot so a big bet isn't too out of line if I hit my hand.
I wouldn't want to max bet to $100 and chase everyone out.
I'd try to bet an amount that looks like a guy just thinks he HAS to cbet but he's not really enthusiastic about it.
$15-$20 feels about right.
We'll see what happens. If someone has a Queen, you are going to get some action.
Does your hand have to go to showdown to get the promo? If so, keep someone in with you of course. A lot of places have a bad beat special, and a straight flush over quad Queens would have to qualify, no? Sometimes a bad beat pot has to be a certain amount, so I'd keep an eye on that as well, although if the other guy has quad queens, I'm sure all the money is going in.
What to do on the turn if you don't improve and are facing action is a tougher spot.

Bet half pot and be ok calling a big raise. You have much equity and want to make the pot bigger in case you win.

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I also like betting 1/2 pot on the flop with our combo draw.
Cbet looks natural in the eyes of opponents and I think it would be a good result to reduce the number of players in the pot on the turn.

I like a ~$30 bet and call a raise. Even if it gets crazy, I probably stay in considering stack sizes.

I wouldn't worry about the promo and not let it influence how we play since we don't even have a hand rn and odds are we're not getting a SF (which is the correct mind set), and I don't like betting small I prefer to fold people out at this point since we still need to make a hand to win instead of building a pot slowly with jack high. We're not folding out a queen of course but I would bet around 45 or 50. People in 5 way pots usually play straight up and I can then possibly jam a heads up or 3 way turn to seal the deal if needed.

For everyone saying “bet”: What hands are in your check-raising range here?

I know but you young MATH GUYS would kill me if I didn’t mention it.

Check-call or check raise depending on action. Its ok to have a very low lead freq this board, but even if we are choosing to lead most of our range to mix in some strong hands to check.

This was my first thought too, tho I don't think too many hands other than Qx or in position, a two pair/better flush draw, will be betting.
Not a bad result if it checks thru, your draw will be concealed.

The OESFD has only 38% equity against a hand like KQo. The 2 outs to the ridiculous nuts are going to come less than 5% of the time. Our hand is really a J-high flush draw and an OESD on a paired board. Against this many villains, I'd assume that some of our outs aren't even good if there's interest from villains in the pot (king against KQ/Heart that makes a higher flush)..

I would check the flop and raise if there's enough callers. We've got good equity against the field.

Check raise is fun, and it is definitely a viable choice with all those outs.
I like it better if we are heads up because it is more likely to take down the pot as a semi bluff as opposed to 5 way where we may just inflate the pot without a made hand.
I like it better if the board isn't paired with a big card like this board is.
If someone has a Queen, we may put in $100 check-raise and AQ/KQ/QJ may pop it back up to $200 forcing everyone else out. Then we are drawing, heads up, oop without a made hand in a very big pot.
Basically, we would be doing the Queen a favor by 2 betting the flop and allowing him to 3 bet the flop.

I also like a CR better if this isn't spread limit.
We can only go so high. We can only put so much pressure on the opponents.
I'll write a separate response for my spread limit concerns so this isn't so long.

Here is why a CR is not as strong in spread limit as it is in NL

With a check raise in NL, we can 1) manipulate the odds we are offering the villains AND 2) choose an amount that makes the SPR 1-1 (or close to it) on the Turn so it is obvious we will be playing for stacks on the Turn.

In Spread Limit we are forced to offer the villains better odds to call our CR and the SPR will be lower in NL and higher in Spread and we can NOT put villain all in on the Turn because the most we can bet is 100.

The final thing I'd add about check raising is that generally I like it better if we were not the pf raiser because it serves also to punish people who cbet too much and almost everyone cbets too much.
If we give up the lead on a high paired board like this it is not for certain that someone else will bet the pot for us, allowing us to CR.
If we give up the lead and no bets go in on the flop and we don't improve on the Turn then we have lost a chance to semi bluff because the semi bluff is much less viable when our equity or our outs have been reduced by half and the pot is still small and the hand is still 5 way.
If we give up the lead on the flop and then try to bluff the turn, our bluff is less believable and our opponents have more confidence in their marginal holdings.

One more thing about check raising a cbet as opposed to giving up the lead 5 way and then trying to CR.

Cbets are total AIR a large per cent of the time.

Check raising a cbet has an added benefit of teaching our opponents that they can't always just cbet every flop against us. So, meta-game benefit.

When the action in a 5 way pot with a paired high card goes:
pre-flop raiser checks,
check,
check
BET.
(1 villain still hasn't acted)

This BET is legit strength more often than a cbet is legit strength.
So check-raising this BET is not as attractive as check raising a cbet because we have less fold equity, which is a big part of why we semi bluff.

All great points on the issues with check-raising at spread-limit, thanks Magnum. I’ve been thinking about it all day. I now think it’s something I can only use in small pots (single raise pre-flop, Heads-Up or 3-way. (If I call a $6 Button open with 55 or QJhh and catch a Th8x5x flop it can make sense, but in the more typical 5-way flops the math just doesn’t make sense.

RESULT:
I actually led out for $40, and immediately regretted it. While I happen to have hit this flop hard, it’s actually a terrible board for my range (as an UTG1 raiser facing 4 callers, the field has WAY more queens than me!), so I should be checking.

But I bet. OMC1 right after me calls it. There’s a fold and then another OMC2 raises it to $140. A fold and back to me, I just call it (reasoning that it’s probably better for me to get the first OMC’s money in the pot too rather than just go all-in heads-up against OMC2 who obviously has at least 3 queens). But it winds up not mattering, as OMC1 now re-raises all-in to $240, then OMC2 re-shoves all-in for about $275.

I call and get close to the best news possible: OMC1 has AQ (no heart) and OMC2 has KQ (no heart); however, I don’t hit, and AQ triples up.


____

As it happens, hand would have likely played out the same (all-in on the flop 3-ways) no matter what I had done, but I’m still very sure my lead was a big mistake.

EDIT: I suppose it’s possible that if I checked, OMC1 bet $40 and OMC2 raised to $140, that I could (should? *must*?) find a fold.

I used to play spread limit 2-100 in Colorado. They started out just allowing limited stakes gambling. I'm not sure if they have changed it or not, that was 15 years ago +/-. You can still use check-raises, for sure, but they just aren't as effective as they could be in certain circumstances and aren't effective as they would be in NL especially deeper stack NL, like 2/5 with a $1,000 buy in (200bb).

Ugh, brutal, but whatever, if you aren't going to play when you have 17 outs, when are you going to play?

Betting less than the max $100 in this spot is a mistake IMO. Overbetting the flop is much more valuable in spread limit than no limit. But people rarely do it. Most replies in this thread come from people who don't really understand the difference between the games.

Fifteen outs(6 to straight, 7 to flush, 2 to straight flush). Assuming an opponent has a Q we lose at least 1 out(the Heart matching their kicker if not a K or 8) or 3 outs if it is a K or 8 as if they fill we need the straight flush to win. Plus of course running Js or running Ts. The KQ removes the JT, or TJ outs

Very interesting—that size bet never even crossed my mind in that spot.

I’m curious to learn more about the ‘overbetting the flop in spread-limit’ strategy. I use overbets in my game, but really only on the Turn (and basically just following NL strategy on when to deploy them). But I’d be very interested to learn more about using them in spread-limit games specifically.