THE TURN
The turn card made the flush with the K 
8 7 
4 K .The first player checked, the next player bet,everyone called.
Why didn’t our hero raise now that he’s made the best hand he had a draw to? Again, he was concerned that someone else might have a better flush. That’s way too timid.
It’s the kind of timid play in a multiway pot that players who take a fixed perspective on the game tend to make.
If you have a flush, then the chances of someone else having a flush are fairly small. Here the K is one of the cards on the board, making it even less likely that, even if someone else has a flush, it’s larger than our 9-high flush.
Failure to raise in this situation is just way too timid; it’s an example of weak-tight play. Three players have already called a bet. At least two of them would call a raise.
That means that in the worst you get 2-1 on a raise. You might even have everyone call, giving you 4-1 on the raise. The chances that your hand is best are probably better than 10-1.
Even if you estimate that it’s even win money that someone has a higher flush, the odds you will get on the raise from the number of callers you will get compensates for that risk.
It’s common for players to be hesitant to raise when they make a flush that’s not the best possible flush. That’s a mistake. Hands such as 9 7 are profitable in multiway pots.
The reason they are profitable is that they sometimes make flushes with the potential for a big pot. You aren’t going to realize that profit if you don’t raise with these poker hands when you make them.
THE RIVER
The river card made a straight possible: 8 7 4 K 9 
. The first three players checked, and one of the players who had just been calling bet. Our hero called.
It’s even more important to raise now. Because no one raised when the flush card hit, the bettor is very likely to have made a straight and be convinced it’s the best hand raising here might very well get a reraise from a player with a straigh.
Sometimes it is better to just call a bet on the river in a multiway pot in the hope that players who haven’t called yet will call but they won’t call a raise.
That’s called “going for the overcall.” When the pot gets large, and in this case the pot is large, the kind of players who tend to populate loose tables will often call a raise with fairly weak holdings.
The pot is just too large for them to just give up. Because the board looks as if it’s possible someone has a straight and they probably think a straight is the best hand, a raise may very well entice them to reraise.
But, our hero called. Then the player who had originally raised on the flop raised.
A check-raise on the river with a board that shows a possible flush and a possible straight is a show of great strength, but this player didn’t check-raise when the K fell on the turn, and he could have. So it’s unlikely hand that the check-raiser has a flush.
A straight is the most likely hand that the check-raiser has, although it would be surprising if he’d raised before the flop and continued to call to the river with a hand that would make a straight.
In any event, our hero called the raise. I think a reraise was called for. The trade-off between overcalls and a raise is now gone.
Although the check-raise by the pre-flop raiser does show strength, I think the pattern of the play of the hand suggests that it’s very unlikely that anyone else has a flush.
Our hero’s judgment at the table was that there was a great risk of another player having a higher flush, and he just called. His judgment may well have been right. He was there, I wasn’t.
