DECISION POINT: You recently sat down with a $500 stack in a live $2/$5 cash game. The player in the Big Blind is someone you recognize as a tough regular capable of making aggressive moves. Action folds to you on the Button and you raise to $15 with A♠A♣, the Small Blind folds, and the Big Blind calls. Your opponent checks the J♦T♦4♥ flop, you bet $25, and they call. On the 9♥ turn your opponent checks and action is on you.

What do you do here?

PRO ANSWER: We are playing a live $2/$5 game. We’ve recently sat down and have a starting stack of $500. We recognize the Big Blind as a tough regular in this game who is capable of making aggressive plays. We are dealt A♠A♣ on the Button and everyone folds to us. We make a standard open to $15. The Small Blind folds and the Big Blind calls. The flop is J♦T♦4♥ and the Big Blind checks.

On this coordinated board texture, most of our range prefers to bet on the larger side or check. We do have a range advantage on this board, as we have far more JJ/TT than our opponent does because they would likely 3-bet those hands preflop. Additionally our range includes a lot of hands that have overcards plus a draw, top pair, and even over pairs. The Big Blind’s range connects well with this flop also, and many of the hands that connect will call without much regard to our bet sizing.

With a hand this high up in our range we elect to bet on the larger side, and make it $25 into the $32 pot and the Big Blind just calls.

The turn is the 9♥ making the board extremely connected with straights possible, as well as many flush draws and two pair combinations. The Big Blind checks to us again. Many players in this situation make the mistake of betting again on the turn for protection.

If our opponent was a passive player, betting as an exploit is preferred as we will rarely get raised. Against a tougher opponent, when we fire another bet on the turn our opponent can often check-raise with a lot of hands that are either already ahead of us, or have significant equity against and can use aggression to put us in a very difficult spot.

Given these factors, even though we have the best starting hand in No-Limit Hold’em, we are much better taking a bluff-catching line rather than continuing to build a pot.

Checking behind on the turn is the best play.