Playing 2/5. IÂ’m sitting with $1400 deep. Villain covers me.

I open to 25 after one limp with As10c in HJ. All remaining players call.

150 in middle going to a flop of KJ3 one spade. Checks around.

Turn Q of spades. Checks to me. I bet 125. Button calls. Remaining players fold.

400 in middle going to a river 2 of spades.
HereÂ’s where I make a mistake. When making the bet I thought I had the 10 of spades and ace of clubs so I go ahead and bet 250$ to get value from hands like 910 and two pair. If I knew I had the ace of spades I wouldÂ’ve opted to check as I can now turn my hand into a bluff by check jamming river in case he made a small flush which this player is capable of bet folding with my tight image. If I opted to check and he bet 300. I can surely just call and beat 910 and hands like 1010 for bluffs but just in case he made some flush I have the perfect stack size to jam about 1k more to his bet and heÂ’s likely fold.

Anyways I end up betting 225$ and he jams his stack. I know all theory based poker will say I have to call here because I have the ace of spades and the hand makes no sense but IÂ’ve seen this particular player overvalue his hands often so he is capable of having some flushes here especially since my turn and river sizing just looks like I have two pair. I tank forever and fold bc I just think heÂ’s overvaluing a flush and has one. I just can barely find any bluffs in this spot. What are his bluffs IÂ’m saying to myself and I canÂ’t seem to find one bc I have ace of spades. So I fold and he rolls over two red 10s for a bluff.

So if the river is a blank non spade, i just snap him off and double through him as he was planning to use his 10 blockers all along. The thing that makes this hand annoying is that the river changes everything so him using two red 10s as blockers to continue his plan to bluff in my opinion is borderline kahmakazee. He should shut his bluffs down once board texture changes so dramatically with flushes coming in. He didnÂ’t even have the 10 of spades.


Is my thinking throughout this hand flawed?
Suggestions please.

The first suggestion is to not post results right away. It changes the advice people give.

Not related to your instant question, but why didn't you c-bet flop? This seems to hit your range much more than their calling range.

Which was the 1 spade on the flop?

As to his bluffs/value hands lower than your straight, V shouldn't have any sets. Though I'm very surprised he didn't 3b you pf, so maybe I'm wrong and QQ/JJ should be in his range too? V might have a slew of broadway suited/offsuit stuff, and 280 bb deep on the button with a caller inbetween and blinds still to act, probably a bunch of SC-1 or 2 off stuff too.

To your main question, 'was your river plan sound,' I'll ask everyone else here if there's a weak counterpart to Zeebo, having to do with people hating to fold lower flushes, especially when they get there runner-runner style, and it therefore being ambitious to get them to do it.

Sounds like a decent plan though. I'd think a thinking V capable of b/f a ~75% bet on the river when they've only put 450 or so in, and would have to call off 950 more.

To me having the ace of spades is relevant, but not relevant enough to make me bet river because all of the field callers including button are collectively playing so many suited combos.

I would just always check call river whether or not i have a spade in my hand.

PRE - seriously, WTF is this game where hero opens 5x over a limp and gets 5 callers?

I don't know what size you should open here, but clearly, it's bigger, in this game, if you get 5 callers when you open 5x. That's bananas.

FLOP - When nobody 3B's you pre, and you have all the AA/KK/JJ/AK/KJ in your range, I'd probably c-bet small, like 20% pot, $30, just to winnow the field and clean up some equity.

If you wait to bet until you actually have a hand, the pot will be smaller. If you figure out you want to bluff on the turn, there's one more card someone might have hit to make 2P, or even 1P that ain't going nowhere.

TURN - $125 ain't bad. $200 is better. If it was a rainbow board, I could see betting $100, but with the As in our hands, we can size up, to make it look like we're worried about the flush draw, when we're really not, or just to charge V's to draw.

RIVER - oh, muh, gawd.

First, memorize your cards and their suits pre-flop. I'll look at my cards 2-3 times pre, and mentally recite what they are, to help commit them to memory. If you have to do a suit-check, do it when the second flush card appears. Try not to make it too obvious, if that's possible.

When the flush comes in runner-runner, and I have the nut straight, I have three basic approaches, which are dependent on my table image, my reads on V, and the stack depths.

Approach 1 - check to induce a bet, which I plan to call. If I win a smaller pot from 2P/sets, or lose a smaller pot to a flush, so be it.

Approach 2 - check-fold. I almost never do this, unless it's against someone who chases all their draws and just always has it when they bet.

Approach 3 - bet 1/2 to 2/3 pot, hoping for a call, praying V doesn't raise.

I don't over-think it.

Here, if you think you have the stack depth to turn Broadway into a bluff, and if you think V is capable of A) believing you'd check-raise the nut flush after checking flop and betting almost full pot on turn, and B) folding a lower flush, then, sure, go ahead and check-raise.

But if you're going to turn Broadway with the As into a bluff, why not just bet small for value, then put in the 3B when you get raised? I'd think that line is more believable, because your rivered runner-runner nut flushes are begging to get value, especially when you missed a bet on the flop.

Or, for that matter, why not just over-bet pot, since the pot is smaller when we check flop, and fold to a raise? Most V's aren't capable of raising without the nuts or a significant blocker to the nuts when we take a larger bet size.

This guy is an ATM. He got lucky that you didn't have AsTs. He might be good enough to figure out you didn't have the flush, but more than likely he just put you on a range that had a lot of hands you'd fold when he jams, and he doesn't give a $hlt about money.

Shake it off. Top off. Go get some revenge.

BTW - is your user name what they called JCVD in Kickboxer? Geezus, that's hilarious.

You rang?

I haven't actually finished reading the hand yet, but the idea of turning the nut straight into a bluff on a backdoor flushing board seems very suspect, spade or no spade in your hand.

Preflop is fine, easy raise from CO, easy fold from earlier positions, from HJ it's the worst offsuit Ace I would open over a limp and I wouldn't blink at a fold either.

On the turn I'm very tempted to get greedy and check-raise but the delayed cbet is fine and you are probably doing this with a lot of hands. Sizing seems OK, I suppose? Would a smaller bet induce a raise or check-raise perhaps? You've struck gold and getting value now when people can have all sorts of strong/high equity hands would leave me wriggling with excitement (wriggling with excitement is often a tell, by the way, don't tell anyone).

I'm just going for straightforward value on the river expecting to get called by lots of two pair etc. As for the raise...ouch...is this player going to bluff a single pair a lot? Instinctively it does feel like strong hand + nut blocker is going to take a lot of convincing against.