Q♠J♠ BB vs SB, river on K♠ T♥ 7♠ 6♣ 2♠, 80 bb
The spot
- You: BB
- Opponent: SB
- Your hand: Q♠J♠
- Board: K♠ T♥ 7♠ 6♣ 2♠
- Effective stack: 80 bb
- Pot: 17.5 bb
Hero can leverage blocker distribution for polarized pressure.
What action maximizes EV in this polarized node?
See the answer
Best play: Bet 40% pot
Why
River (K♠ T♥ 7♠ | 6♣ | 2♠). The board shows three spades (K♠ 7♠ 2♠) and hero's Q♠J♠ complete a Queen-high flush — a strong but non-nut made hand (A♠x and K♠x flushes beat it). IP against the SB's capped range, hero bets small for thin value: it gets called by worse flushes, two pair and sets, while a polar overbet would only fold those second-best hands and get raised by the rare better flush.
Key idea
A made but non-nut flush on the river is a thin-value hand: size small to get called by the worse hands you beat, not big enough to only fold them out or invite raises from the nuts.
Common mistake
Overbetting the Queen-high flush as if it were the nuts, which folds out the worse flushes and two pair that would call a small bet.