Playing a Flush
When you flop something less than the top flush, you’re again in a situation that’s similar to the top pair or an overpair.
How aggressively you play this hand depends on how many callers you’re getting and how aggressive they are.
If you’re getting three or more callers, you should slow down with a flopped flush that isn’t headed by the Ace or King.
There will be draws to a bigger flush than yours, and they will benefit from the bets and raises, not you.
In a tight game, it’s very unlikely that anyone else has also flopped a flush, so even if you don’t have an Ace-high flush, don’t have much to be concerned about.
In a loose game, there is more of a chance that you’re not the only player who has flopped a flush.
Even if you have four or five other active hands, the chances of someone besides yourself having a flush are still fairly small.
If you have a flush on the flop, then five of the thirteen flush cards are accounted for. For someone else to have a flush, they must have two to only eight cards unaccounted for.
This is unlikely even in the loosest of games.
Of all the possible beginning Holdem hands, less than about one-third of them are suited.
So if you’re at a loose table where players are seeing the flop 60 percent of the time or more, they probably don’t have suited cards at all, even suited in suits other than the flush.
Don’t think the worst if you flop a low flush. Your hand is probably by far the best hand, and you should play it has such.
Also, in a loose game don’t let a lot of action on the flop convince you that someone else has a flush.
A hand that was discussed on the Internet newsgroup re. gambling poker illustrates this.
Our hero in this hand was dealt a 8 
6 .
He saw the flop along with six other players, and the betting styles was capped at four bets before the flop-a large pot. The flop was A 10 2 . He flopped a small flush.
He was third to act on the flop and the first player to bet.
This player had been one of the raisers before the flop. The second player raised and our hero reraised.
Everyone called, and the original raiser put in the last raise.
At this point our hero because convinced that he was beaten, that someone, probably the player doing the raising, had a larger flush then he did.
One of the factors that helped convince our hero that he was beaten was that the raiser was what he considered a solid poker player.
Pick the Right Table / Picking a Seat / Theories of Poker / Betting Theory: The Odds
A Theory of Starting Hand Value
A Theory of Flop Play: Counting Outs and Evaluating Draws
The Dynamics of Game Conditions / Table Image / Player Stereotypes
Women and Poker / Spread-Limit Games / Double Bet on the End Games / Kill Games
Short-handed Games / Tournaments / No-limit and Pot-Limit Poker
