I'm on the button here with 8s8c. It's a 2/5 game with a live straddle, which means (maybe everyone knows this, but I didn't until I started playing casino) that UTG posts $10 blind.

6 players in the hand, so the flop pot was $60, and the flop comes Td8d2s. The table has also really livened up the past few hands for various reasons, but it has become a big-time action table (SB, who has a huge stack, is one of the reasons--a very good tournament player who actually finished 100-something in the 2004 WSOP).

Anyhow, SB bets out $50, a really bad player with about $200 calls from MP, and a late MP player raises to $200. Late MP, SB, and I all have very large stacks--$1,500 or so.

One thing I should also note is that late MP and I had a hand a month or so ago where I floped a set, he minimum raised me on his nut flush draw, I re-raised hard. He called, hit his flush on the turn, and moved in for around $250, giving me slightly bad odds for the call, which I made anyway with the set. Anyhow, I missed on the river and doubled him up on that one.

So, anyhow, I make it $600 to go this time, and all but the bad player fold. Bad player actually turns over a decent hand, namely J9 with one diamond for straight draw with runner-runner flush. He missed, and I took the pot.

Does anyone think a flat call was better here? In this case, late MP, who had made the semi-bluff previously, said he had AT, hence was drawing essentially dead.

If a diamond shows up, I do have position. But I hate to have to consider laying this thing down on the river with a diamond and no paired board. I'm also not sure whether AT would have bet the turn again.

So, I don't know. On this board, I can see a good case for both raising or flat calling. Raising is definitely safer, but I kept wondering if I might not have missed some EV by playing it safe.

One important question is whether SB was going to be able to call the $200. It was a sweet pot anyway, but one that I wondered about maybe playing it a little too routinely?

For me anyways, I'd have just bet hard like you did. Big hand deserves a big bet