Flop Analysis
Checking top pair with a strong kicker is a high-frequency play here to protect our checking range and control the pot on a dynamic texture.
We navigated a dynamic board to hit the nut straight, but the river flush completion turns our hand into a bluff-catcher or a thin value-shove.
Checking top pair with a strong kicker is a high-frequency play here to protect our checking range and control the pot on a dynamic texture.
After the flop checks through, we should start building the pot. We now have top pair and an open-ended straight draw, giving us massive equity.
The river is a double-edged sword. We hit the broadway straight, but the third heart completes the flush. Betting small is a reasonable way to target Ax or two-pair hands.
When BTN raises on this river, they are heavily polarized between flushes and bluffs. Raising back is extremely thin because we lose to every flush and only get called by worse straights.
Note: The 3-bet on the river is overplaying the hand; we lose to all flushes and BTN's raise is rarely a worse straight.