Hi guys, I recently came across Episode 9 on polarized flop raising. The episode is great but it raised a rather particular question for me regarding the role of our nut flush draws when constructing polarized raising ranges oop.

So Peter begins right with the first hand example, where we hit a nut flush draw BB vs. BU on 8h7h2h. He then lines out that our value range wants value here right away, which is why we construct a raising range that we back up with some bluffs and that the nut FD would be a nice candidate. Honestly, this very much confuses me as I would regard Ah5s as a much too strong hand here to c/r bluff with. We have 9 outs to the flush, 3 outs to top pair and several outs for BDSDs plus at least slight SDV.

Actually, in the Grinder's Manual he himself lines out that one crucial factor for bluff candidates in polarized raising ranges needs to be that they can easily fold to a 3-bet without having much equity denied. If we raise our nut flush draws and get 3-bet, I would characterize this as a disaster. I dislike going broke here and folding out such a chunk of equity seems tremendous.

I evaluated a similar flop 9d6d2d BU vs. BB in GTO+. While it does develop a polarized raising range on this flop, it would also largely play nut flush draws as a call.

Regarding the initial hand example of Peter Clarke: My approach would be to raise sets and 87s for value here and weaker FDs (Jx and lower) with the aim to fold to a 3bet. What are your thoughts here? In essence: Where do nut flush draws go in polarized c/r ranges?