You Are Absolutely Nuts!

The table is a generic .01/.02 NL table, lots of calling and raises, not many people who want to fold, although I hadn’t been at the table very long and I had just won a $1+ pot.

PokerStars Game #9544731232: Hold’em No Limit ($0.01/$0.02) – 2007/04/2x – 00:00:00 (ET)Table ‘ATM II’ 9-max
Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: dude11 ($3.28 in chips)
Seat 3: anotherguy ($3.14 in chips)
Seat 5: guy ($2.63 in chips)
Seat 6: someone ($1.86 in chips)
Seat 7: me ($6 in chips)
Seat 8: tight ($3.37 in chips)
Seat 9: justsatdown ($4.97 in chips)
tight: posts small blind $0.01
justsatdown208 joins the table at seat #4
justsatdown: posts big blind $0.02
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to me [Jd Td]
dude11: folds
anotherguy: raises $0.04 to $0.06
guy: calls $0.06
someone: folds
someone leaves the table
me: calls $0.06 (Loose-ish call by me. Not my normal play to call a raise with JTs, because suited connectors usually take time to develop a hand, and don’t stand up so well in heads up pots with raises. I like to play suited connectors for a minimum call. However, everytime I read Sklansky’s No Limit Hold’Em Theory and Practice, he and Ed Miller stress position, and that almost any hand can be profitable on the button, so I’m trying to play more hands on the button, and JTs does have possibilities.)
tight: folds
justsatdown: folds
*** FLOP ***
[Qd 8d 9d]
anotherguy: bets $0.02
guy: raises $0.06 to $0.08
me: calls $0.08 (I wanted to keep everyone in the hand, so no raise. I figured the original bettor for weakness since he raised preflop, yet only bet minimum on the flop, but I was hoping maybe he would play on, but he folded. I’m happy about the original caller raising, though. I hope he’s got an A high flush, or a set, but my guess is he’s bluffing.)
anotherguy: folds
*** TURN ***
[Qd 8d 9d] [7d]
guy: bets $0.10me: calls $0.10 (I think this was a mistake. I think I should have minraised here, although I think he probably would have folded. If he had the Ad or 5d6d, he’s trying to get money in, if he has anything else, he’s probably going to let it go, unless he’s got a set and thinks he’s behind but has 10 outs. At the time, I was just thinking about keeping him in the hand and hoping he fires one more on the river. Looking back, I think it’s a mistake.)
*** RIVER ***
[Qd 8d 9d 7d] [Ah]
guy: bets $0.12
me: raises $0.43 to $0.55 (It’s a big raise compared to his bet, but it’s not more that the size of the pot. I’m hoping he hit his hand and has to at least call. I’m not going to minraise for another .12, because I think he folds to any raise, unless he has at least a straight (unlikely), at which point he should reraise me a large amount, and then I can come back at him.)
guy: folds (booooo)
guy leaves the table (boooooo)
me collected $0.83 from pot
me: doesn’t show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $0.83 Rake $0
Board [Qd 8d 9d 7d Ah]
Seat 1: dude11 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 3: anotherguy folded on the Flop
Seat 5: guy folded on the River
Seat 6: someone folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 7: me (button) collected ($0.83)
Seat 8: tight (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 9: justsatdown (big blind) folded before Flop

An area of NLHE that I think about a lot is ‘how to extract the most money out of a hand’. I think it’s a weakness of mine. You would think this would be an easy question, but it isn’t. In this hand history, I flopped the absolute nuts – a straight flush where I held broadway cards. Sometimes you’ll flop ‘the nuts’ – an A high flush, or a straight, and your hand can still be outdrawn when the board pairs, or someone catches 2 cards to make a higher straight, but in this case, no matter what happens, I can’t be outdrawn. What is good and bad about a board like this is that people can make straights and flushes, but 3 cards of one suit on the flop usually slows everyone down. A 4th of the suit really slows everyone down unless one person has the A, and another has the K. With deepish stacks (130BB effective stacks), I think I’m destined to not get it all in there with a scary board, unless someone’s got the Ad, but I wonder if I could have gotten a little more had I played it a little more aggressively.

With the absolute nuts, how could I have played this better to get more money into the pot?