DECISION POINT: You are playing in a live $5/$10 cash game with competent players and are dealt Q♥J♥ Under The Gun. You raise to $30 and action folds to the Big Blind who reraises to $120 and you call. Your opponent checks the 9♥T♣7♠ flop, you bet $60, and they call. The turn is the 3♥ and the Big Blind checks. Action is on you, what do you do here?

PRO ANSWER: We are playing in a $5/$10 game with $1,000 effective stacks. It’s early in the game but the lineup seems solid with a lot of competent players. We are dealt QhJh Under The Gun and we raise to $30. Action folds to the Big Blind and they reraise to $120. This is a spot where our theoretical response to the raise is mixed, and we should fold QJ suited 50% of the time and continue 50% of the time. Using a suit randomizer this is one of the times we continue so we do call.

The flop is 9hTc7s and the Big Blind checks. As the preflop caller this type of flop favors our range as we have a lot more TT/99/T9s type hands in our range than our opponent does. With an open ended straight draw, a backdoor flush draw plus two overcards this is a fairly straightforward bet for us once our opponent checks.

With the pot being fairly large in relation to the stacks we can take a small stab here with most of our betting range and still put our opponent to a meaningful decision. We bet $60 and get called.

The turn is the 3h and our opponent checks. This is a tricky spot as our equity did improve by picking up a flush draw however with 15 outs our equity in the pot is around 30%. If we were to bet and get check-raised it would be catastrophic and we would have to fold.

Against tough opponents with robust check-raising ranges on the turn this would happen with some regularity. Checking back allows us to fully realize our equity in this spot and we still get the opportunity to bluff on the river with some frequency when our opponent checks. Against passive opposition betting here would be fine, and perhaps preferred, as our pot equity plus fold equity is quite significant here.

When facing really tough players who are capable of making aggressive plays on the turn, the downside of having to potentially fold this strong of a hand outweigh the benefits of generating some additional fold equity.

Checking is the best play.