This just happened, so I thought I’d ask here for recommendations. It’s a situation that I feel like I should be able to make more money at, or at least feel more comfortable in. In general, it’s having a decent but not premium pair in the blinds in a raised pot, then having a flop with low cards that aren’t likely to have hit any of the villains.

This particular hand is from a $10 doubleup on Bovada. Not a MTT, but since it was one of the first hands in the doubleup, it approximates an MTT as much as it ever would.

Stacks are all around 1500. Blinds are 10/20.

Hero in BB is dealt Td Ts.

Preflop UTG+1 raises to 60.Button calls. I call.

Flop is 4c2d7d. UTG+1 checks. Button bets 140.

In this specific position, I almost always have the best hand here, minus occasional flopped sets, and my hand value is disguised since I just called the flop from the BB. My main question is about optimizing value in cases like this.  In this case I min-raised, rationalizing that if either villain had any part of the flop or a diamond draw they would call, and since the stacks in these are low to start with, with the raise it makes it easier to get the stacks all in when the board stays low or I hit a 10.

UTG+1 folds. Button calls the min raise.

Turn is Qd. I am concerned about the diamond, but I think if I check, button probably will bet and I will probably want to call anyway. I bet 300, and button folds.

My line of questioning isn’t really all about this specific hand, but more about how to approach this kind of flop situation for value when the opponents are heavy on overcards, and not only in the shorter-stacked doubleup context but in a deeper-stacked early MTT environment too.  Also, more specifically, in this hand would it have been better to just call the flop bet to increase the chances that UTG+1 calls along too? I didn’t expect button’s nearly pot-size flop bet to be a total bluff, since there were two others in the pot and that’s fairly rare in these games. Finally, betting the turn was confusing. I think I could have rationalized a bet or a check here against a random unknown. I elected to bet and probably would have folded to a shove here, but that thinking makes me want to re-evaluate the benefits of check-calling.

Thanks!