[Sherman]

This thread is getting very confusing between flop play and turn play.

Anyhow, here are my thoughts from start to finish.

PF - completing is meh, ok.

Flop - We have to bet to protect our hand on this board. It is multiway and there are many draws out there. If we are beat, betting is the sure way to find out. I'd hate to see a 6,9,T,J,Q and probably other cards hit on the turn for free against two opponents.

Turn - Good result in that one opponent folded. We don't have such a strong desire to protect our hand now. We only have one opponent and the turn card either put him WA or still drawing, but it is tough to be sure. His flop call showed some strength, so let's check and re-evaluate.

River - Ok. If villain checked behind on the turn, we might be in the unfortunate spot of having to check/call a small river bet here, although it sucks. Anything ~1/2 the pot or more is probably a fold. If villain bet the turn, I'd probably call and check/fold this river.

Summary:
So, if villain outplayed us here and took this pot away with us with a worse hand, kudos to him. There just wasn't much we could do. This is the trouble with playing OOP when the turn and river don't cooperate. We have to make tough decisions, but overall, I think we lose the least on this line and protect our hand when we might be ahead, while forcing our opponent to truly outplay us if he is bluffing.

As a side note, if some non-scary cards hit on the river (there really aren't many in the deck) we can check/call a larger bet than I am advocating.