Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $1000 NL (6 max, 6 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx
BB ($2488)
UTG ($1304)
MP ($809)
Hero ($1112)
Button ($1317.50)
SB ($1300)
Preflop: Hero is CO with 6:club:, 6:diamond:. SB posts a blind of $5.
UTG raises to $35, 1 fold, Hero calls $35, 1 fold, SB (poster) calls $30, 1 fold.
Standard preflop action. Its worth noting that UTG has seemed like a good, aware player.
Flop: ($115) 6:spade:, 9:spade:, K:spade: (3 players)
SB checks, UTG bets $100, Hero calls $100, SB folds.
Pretty standard play on the flop. At this point I think I probably have the best hand, and if someone has a flush I still have a good chance to get there. Part of the reason I just call is the player behind me, who I hope will raise, or at the very least also call.
One key thing to point out is that I called rather quickly here, largely to give the false impression that I'm drawing to the flush. Most players tend to call quickly on flush draws on the flop (especially when facing smallish bets), so this is a good false tell to give.
Turn: ($315) Q:diamond: (2 players)
UTG bets $225, Hero calls $225.
Here is where my play goes outside the norm. He makes a strong pot sized bet on the turn, and I then realize that whatever he has, he's going to put me all in on the river if a spade doesn't come, as he has commited a good deal of his stack to the pot, has shown strength, and up until this point I have shown nothing but weakness. There's only a 18% chance that the river is a spade, so the key is that I estimate there's at least an 80% chance that we'll get all in on the river if I just call the turn. He'll either push the river or check to me or I will push, and with my loose aggressive image and the way I've played the hand up until this point, he has no choice but to call as it would look like I have missed my flush draw.
If I reraise all in here, there IS a pretty good chance I'll get called. However, while he's showed strength in the hand this could be just because he's putting me on nothing more than a flush draw. He could himself have a very weak hand and just be bluffing, or more likely he could have a K with a decent kicker and maybe a spade as well, however once I reraise all in its rather unlikely he'll still be putting me on a flush draw. If my opponent on this hand was a bad player, this indeed would have been the correct play because 1. he'd be more likely to call my push on the turn, and 2. he'd be less likely to read my hand as a busted flush draw on the river, even though that's how its been represented fully (bad opponents often aren't trying to read your hand).
However, this wasn't the case, and therefore I estimated that he'd call my all in reraise here less than 80% of the time, which therefore made just calling on the turn the best play, given my previous assessment.
Again, a very important part of representing the flush draw here was giving a false tell. Here, unlike the flop, I was facing a big pot sized bet on the turn, and its a situation where many players (and most good ones) would fold the nut flush draw, and would certainly fold every other flush draw. So to represent the flush draw I had to delay a while before calling, such as a person with the A of spades would likely do here if they did call (likely thinking about the pot and implied odds).
River: ($765) J:spade: (2 players)
Darn! The worst card in the deck, a spade that doesn't pair the board. Now not only am I not going to get the opponent to put me all in (as I had expected him to do if any non-spade fell), but now I may not even have the best hand anymore!
UTG checks, Hero bets $752 (all in), UTG folds.
Final Pot: $765
He quickly checks to me, and immediately I put 2 and 2 together in my head and realize that of course he believes I have the A of spades because of my previous play, and I instantly go all in, and he rather quickly folds.
This is much more important than it looks. You probably are thinking that checking behind on the river makes more sense and would be much safer, and this is by far the standard play here (and is what I'd do in most circumstances with this hand on this board). There is still a decent chance that my trip 6s is the best hand, as he may not have a spade.
However, since I've been representing the nut flush draw the entire hand, and knew that he was putting me on this, checking behind would've been a major mistake. While the most likely hand he's holding is something like AA, AK or KQ without a spade, what if he has KK or 99? Couldn't he have played these hands similarly? How about a hand like Kx with the x being a spade (most likely something like KxTs)? If he flopped a low flush with a suited connector, wouldn't he have played it similarly as well?
Given the strong misreads I gave off on the flop and turn that I was on a flush draw, and then my instant push on the river, this player has no choice but to put me on the nut flush, and therefore must fold all of the above mentioned hands that would take the pot had I checked behind on the river. Given how he's played this hand, and in particular his river check, its extremely unlikely he has the A of spades himself. The only hand he MAYBE would call me with here is KQ with the Q of spades, but even that I think many good players would lay down here, as it seems just too obvious that I have the nut flush.
