Got out and used my barbells and dumbbells in the heat. It's only 98! Not even triple digits! Pizza cake.

Today I lifted for 73 minutes

Here is what today looked like:

Tip Toe Squat 140 x 10
Dumbbell Push Press 35 x 25
Flutter Kicks BW+45 x 60
KB Goblet Squat 70 x 22
Barbell Wrist Curls 75 x 25
Leg Raises BW+45 x 20
Deadlift 235 x 10
Dumbbell Wrist Curls 30 x 20
Russian Medicine Ball Swings 25 pounds BW+45 x 30
Stiff Leg Deadlift 185 x 15
Behind The Back Barbell Wrist Curls 75 x 25
Bridge Opposite Arms Leg Reach BW+45 x 30
Right Leg Deadlift 135 x 15
Chin ups BW x 5
Left Side Plank BW+45 x 30 seconds
Left Leg Deadlift 135 x 15
Pull Ups BW x 3
Right Side Plank BW+45 x 15 seconds

Pretty length day of exercise. Now I'm off to play disc golf, and then after that some high intensity racquetball.

Life is good, WIM

Got out and lifted again today. Was solid. Pretty taxing work out, great sweat.

Today I lifted for 63 minutes

Here is what it looked like:

Bench Press 100 x 25
Jump Rope 150 reps in 75 seconds
Donkey Kickbacks BW+45 x 30
Bench Press 100 x 23
Step down jump-ups BW+10 pounds 16" x 25
Cross Leg Diagonal Crunch BW+45 x 30
Narrow Grip Bench Press 100 x 20
Kroc Rows 50 x 25
Incline Sit-ups BW+10 pounds x 25
Narrow Grip Bench Press 100 x 20
Right leg lateral jumps BW+10 pounds 23" x 25
Bicycle Crunches BW+45 x 30
Wide Grip Bench Press 100 x 20
Left leg lateral jumps BW+10 pounds 23" x 25
Toe Touche Crunches BW+45 x 30
Wide Grip Bench Press 100 x 20
Kettle bell swings 80 x 26
V-Up holds BW x 20


Great sweat. I'm closing in on the end of my level 4 Spanish, I have to finish level 5 by the end of the year. Should be fine as long as I keep up with it.

Now I'm off to eat seafood.

Life is good, WIM

More poker hands

They're coming!

Today I got out and finished my weekly lifting requirements.

Today I lifted for 45 minutes, bringing my total weekly lifting time to 248 minutes

Just a lighter workout today, focused on arms and trying to do enough to be sore tomorrow. Here is what it looked like:

Dumbbell bench press 25x25
Dumbbell bench press 35x20
Dumbbell bench press 45x10
Barbell curls 45x25
Barbell curls 55x15
Barbell curls 65x10
Right forearm curls 20x25
Left forearm curls 20x25
Right forearm curls 25x20
Left forearm curls 25x20
Right forearm curls 30x15
Left forearm curls 30x15
Skull crushers 25x25
Skull crushers 35x15
Skull crushers 40x10


Life is good, WIM

Alright, new week! Got outside in the 103 degree heat and really moved some weight around.

Today I lifted for 80 minutes

Here is what it looked like:

Low Bar Back Squat 145 x 15
Push-ups BW x 21
Sit-ups BW+45 x 27
Low Bar Back Squat 145 x 15
Push-ups BW x 22
Crunches BW+45 x 27
Low Bar Back Squat 145 x 15
Push-ups BW x 23
Elbow Plank BW x 70 seconds
Low Bar Back Squat 145 x 15
Dumbbell Curls 25 x 25
Arms-High Partial Sit-ups BW+45 x 30
Low Bar Back Squat 145 x 15
Barbell Curls 50 x 25
Mountain Climbers BW+45 x 30
High Bar Back Squat 145 x 10
Dumbbell Shoulder Press 25 x 25
Heel Touch Crunches BW+45 x 32
Tip Toe Squat 145 x 10
Dumbbell Push Press 37.5 x 20
Flutter Kicks BW+45 x 62
Barbell Wrist Curls 85 x 25
Skull crushers 35 x 15
Farmers walks 40 x 60 seconds

Now I'm off to practice some disc.

Life is good, WIM

Hand #2

Erratic player limps in LP, SB completes and I check my option with Qs9h. We take the flop 3 ways and it come 9s8s3s. After the SB checks I lead for 10. Erratic limper calls and SB folds. Turn is 8h and I bet 20. He calls pretty quickly and the river is the Qc. I decide that this is a pretty clear bet for value against this player instead of checking to induce a bluff. Erratic players like this aren't nearly as likely to spazz out on the river and just roll over all their missed hands and all of their showdown value hands. I guess he's spazzing on the river some % of the time but the times he calls with worse is much, much greater. I opt on betting 30 and to my surprise he pretty quickly min-raises to 60. In this spot against almost every player, this is a super easy fold. If you are up against a super tricky player he might be making a weird value raise with a hand like QdKs thinking his 2 pair is good, but even then all the combos of Qx that have a high enough spade to call flop and turn are being raised preflop. So I folded about 0.8 seconds after he raised.

#3

Weird hand here. UTG+2 opens to 20 (he has about 700) I flat with KsTs (1k) the next player flats (2500) the button 3-bets to 80 (800). Here's where the hand gets strange. Erratic player from hand #2 flats the 80 bet with just 60 behind. Original raiser calls, and I take a second to consider the buttons 3-betting range. I know he's a crafty player and he could be 3-betting light here. The raise size is weird, and I should have been more suspicious. I don't have much history with him but I was wondering if such a small 3-bet was something cheesy like 89s. Without enough history and with stack sizes and with my hand being reasonably playable I decide to flat and duder behind me hesitates and flats as well so we take a flop 5 ways.

It comes 8s4s8h and the shorty immediately ships, not really to anyone's surprise. The original raiser sort of looks around and shrug-folds and now I consider my options. I don't know the shorty's range here but it's gotta be really wide here. I'd really love to get it heads up here and play the rest of the pot for just $60 with X% equity against shorty. So now I figure out raise size. I finally decide that a small raise here is perfect. I'm leveraging my stack size and really forcing a player behind me to have an 8 or make a decision for heaps of chips. Plus a smaller raise looks scary which is another benefit.

So I make it 140 and both other players pretty quickly fold. So I just risked 140 to get it heads up vs shorty in a pot that was 460, and even better I only had to leave 60 of it out when they folded. Unless he's full already my equity there is great against basically his entire range. He ended up having As6s which kinda sucked but still plenty of equity for the price I paid.

Side note: button did have 56 so I could have 4-bet and got him off and got it heads up with Shorty which may or may not been a more desirable outcome.

#4

More mistakes by me. UTG straddles for 10 and UTG+1 (600) opens to 35. The cutoff calls (700) the button calls (900) and I (1200) look down at Ah8h. I've played enough with the cutoff and button to know I would have heard from them if they had a big hand. So now I have to evaluate UTG+1s hand range. He's the crafty button 3-bettor from hand 3. I finally decide that if I 3-bet here I'll force him to have a monster and commit all his chips without me risking that much. As soon as I re-raise to 180 he immediately looks down at his chips (bad sign!) and thinks for about 90 seconds while stacking and counting and re-stacking and re-counting and finally makes it 400. The other 2 players quickly fold and now I try and figure out if there's any way I can continue with the hand, seeing as how I've got 180 out already and it's going to cost me about 420 more to see the river. So about 420 to win roughly 880. Put myself in a dumb spot with that untimely 3-bet. I'm doing pretty bad against his range and even with the dead money I don't feel like spewing off another +400 with the what is likely (at best) 3 outs. So I folded and he flashed me KK.

Hand #5

I had won a small pot on the previous hand when I straddled the button so I straddled again on the cutoff. 6-7 people limped in and I checked my option with the 2h4h. It comes Ah4s3h and the SB leads for 20. He's the previous erratic player from the earlier hands. 2 more people call and I start contemplating the best line here and I'm pretty sure it's just raising to build a pot up with such a huge draw. The only problems here are many players won't fold top pair of aces against me and I don't love the idea of building the pot bigger against a bigger flush draw. But really my hand is so big that I really like just trying to get more chips into the pot in position. I can also possibly buy a river card right here if the turn is something bad like an ace I can just check back and see a river for free. Although I'm pretty sure I'm barreling most brick turn cards.

So I decide to make it 100 straight. SB calls after thinking for a bit, and surprisingly, I pick up another caller so we take the turn 3 ways. It comes a pretty great card for me, the 4d. Now, pretty interestingly, the SB donk leads the turn for 60 with about 300 behind. The hitch hiker calls and now I'm wondering if I should raise or just call. I've got such a monster hand I don't wanna run these guys off and lose value, which is a bigger leak of mine. But I figure the pots big enough and I'm happy to just pile it in so I ship it. I think a smaller raise is fine but I'm happy with the all in. The erratic player quickly puts the rest in and the hitch hiker folds 56. Erratic player has AJ and I win a healthy pot.

Hand #6

The button straddles to 10 and UTG min raises to 20 and after a few people call I look down at J9o on the CO and try and range UTG for a second. He's had a few beers and I actually think there's somewhat of a chance he didn't see the straddle and thought he was raising 4x instead of just min-raising the straddle. But he's def active enough to be min-raising UTG with something super cheesy. The games playing fairly deep and I've played with the guy who's straddling the button to know he won't squeeze light if I flat so I come along.

The flop comes KcTs7c and its checked to me. Although I have a double gutter, I don't love it because AJ is certainly a possibility, there are clubs out there so I really only have 3 pure outs to the nuts. I certainly don't want to get check-raised and don't really want to start building up a pot with a marginal draw. I felt like if I bet here it's really close a bluff more than a semi-bluff so I just check it and the button checks immediately. The button is up a ton and sort of just in auto-pilot mode playing his cards pretty straight forward.

The turn brings an off suit 3 and once again it's checked to me. The players that have now checked twice are pretty reliably quite weak so now I feel a lot better about betting here. I lead for 100 and the button calls pretty quickly as does the initial raiser. Now range time. UTG probably has hands like QQ, JJ, AJ, AQ,AJ, QJ, maybe even worse Ts and smaller pairs if he doesn't sense much strength. The button probably actually has a similar range with less of the stuff like AQ AJ and more along the lines of some 89, and worse Ts. One thing I am sort of discounting here is a flush draw from either player. UTG is leading the flop here with any flush draw a huge % of the time, and when it gets checked around on the flop if he's got any flush draw he's leading the turn probably close to 100% of the time. I can't completely disregard a flush draw for the button, but he's betting in position on the flop extremely often with all of his flush draws. His bet frequency when checked to is extremely high. Add to the fact that he is in the hand for half price on the button straddle and I think he just has a ton of weak hands here. There is a chance he's got something like baby clubs or a bigger but dry flush draw, but with history, his position and how's he played the hand so far I think it's less than 10% that he has clubs. So I fully intend on betting all the blank rivers. Pretty much any card T or higher (besides a Q, obviously) I'm shutting it down.

The river brings an interesting 6c completing the front door flush and 89 open ender. UTG checks to me and based on my analysis through the hand so far I'm happily betting this river in this spot. I have plenty of flushes in my range here, and the other two have extremely weak hands here often enough for me to just continue barreling. I finally land on 260 and much to my dismay the button calls immediately and UTG folds. I realize he's probably looking me up with 89 here, but that's about the very worst hand he would call with. I announced I missed and he tabled Jc8c(!!!). Pretty shocked too see he almost has the best hand possible in his range here, I thought there was less than a 10% chance he checked a flush draw on the flop in position, let alone a combo draw. Oh well.

Hand #7

This hand was sort of an interesting hand based on just paying attention to what was happening. I straddle the button to 10 and an elderly lady throws out 15. Here's what was weird: the next player to act throws out the 10 to call the straddle almost exactly at the same the 15 went in, he was thinking she was calling. But as soon as his 10 hit the felt he saw the 15 and snatched it back. Nobody saw what he did because they were all focused on informing the lady she had to make it 20 to complete the raise. She is visibly irritated at having to make it 20 and even protesting a little bit. So now the player who had thrown out the 10 and snatched it back makes it 80. The next player sort of shrugs and calls the 80 with what I'm certain is a pretty speculative hand. It comes back to me and I look down at red 77 and go into evaluation mode. The lady had like 500 behind, the 3-bettor had like 400 behind, the flat caller covered the table and I had about 1500.

I'm pretty sure that the lady is weak based on everything, plus with the action she's only going to continue with a super premium holding and she's basically telegraphing that she's folding. I'm pretty sure that the 3-bettor is just playing off her weakness, and the flat caller is light. He even said something like, "I'll gamble" when he called, something not in an angling manner, just a very matter of fact way. Add all that information to the fact that I really don't mind getting in 100 BBs with 77 against the 3-bettor. He's an action player so if I double him up its fine, plus I know he's getting in his stack with worse hands pretty frequently here. Add it all together and I make 380 to go. I think it took roughly 6 seconds for all 3 players to fold and I picked up a nice pot without contest.

I ran numbers for 77 all in preflop a while back for 100bb and it doesn't look good. Dude basically has to be a maniac and even then you almost always flipping because he would play his smaller pairs different.

But because of the straddle this is only 50bb. And effectively it's even less because of the woman's action. So this easy reraise. But smaller, 380 too high.

No limit sounds hard. I think I will just stick to small stakes limit. Just wait for high cards, flop top pair and pray to the LHE Gods that all 4 chasers in the pot with their junk hands miss whatever 2-5 out draw they are calling me down with.

Main problem in all hands 1-7 is the dealer dealt 2 too few cards.

Yea I realized after it was too late to edit I meant 50 BBs but oh well. QB my friend is a pretty good NL and PLO player but loves limit and its almost all he play when we're in Vegas. He describes the game the same as you do.

DT - Yeah, sort of agree. The problem is that the PLO games have been terribly uninteresting from a strategy standpoint. Nobody's the least amount creative, they all play pretty tight and nitty and ABC. The games are still soft and profitable but there aren't really any good players putting me in tough spots or creative lines I'm having to take to mix it up. There are def some hands coming, but overall the PLO game has just been stealing pots in position, making easy folds, and pressing small edges the rest of the time.

I had quite a good day today. I got out and disc golfed today,

I got my first ace!

Just a nice sidearm shot up the middle, about 165' hole-in-one. I'll measure it exactly next time I'm out.

Then I went and played racquetball, quite a crazy sweat.

After that I had just enough time to squeeze in a workout before heading to work.

Today I lifted for 120 minutes

Just stayed inside while watching Ep. 2 of Hard Knocks. Here is what I did:

Russian swings 18x30
Russian swings 35x20
Russian swings 50x10
Russian swings 18x60
Russian swings 35x40
Russian swings 50x20
Right arm tree press 18x15
Left arm tree press 18x15
Right arm overhead press 35x10
Left arm overhead press 35x10
Right arm push press 50x5
Weighted sit-ups 18x30
Weighted sit-ups 35x20
Weighted sit-ups 50x10
Weighted sit-ups 18x60
Weighted sit-ups 35x40
Weighted sit-ups 50x20
Right arm floor press 18x30
Left arm floor press 18x30
Right arm floor press 35x20
Left arm floor press 35x20
Right arm floor press 50x10
Left arm floor press 50x10
Right arm floor press 18x60
Left arm floor press 18x60
Right arm floor press 35x40
Left arm floor press 35x40
Right arm floor press 50x20
Left arm floor press 50x20
Right forearm curls 18x20
Left forearm curls 18x20
Right arm hammer curls 18x20
Left arm hammer curls 18x20
Skull crushers 18x30


Burned a ton of calories today!

Life is good, WIM

Got out and finished the rest of my lifting today. Wasn't too bad outside, actually. Only about 100 degrees but most of it was shaded and there was a light breeze off and on.

Today I lifted for 82 minutes, bringing my weekly total lifting time to 242 minutes

Here is what I did today:

Bench Press 100 x 25
Jump Rope 200 reps in 100 seconds
Donkey Kickbacks BW+45 x 32
Bench Press 100 x 25
Step down jump-ups BW+15 pounds 16" x 25
Cross Leg Diagonal Crunch BW+45 x 32
Narrow Grip Bench Press 100 x 23
Kroc Rows 52.5 x 25
Incline Sit-ups BW x 25
Narrow Grip Bench Press 100 x 24
Right leg lateral jumps BW+15 pounds 23" x 25
Bicycle Crunches BW+45 x 32
Wide Grip Bench Press 100 x 25
Left leg lateral jumps BW+15 pounds 23" x 25
Toe Touch Crunches BW+45 x 32
Wide Grip Bench Press 100 x 21
Kettle bell swings 80 x 27
V-Up holds BW x 25
Incline Dumbbell Bench Press 32.5 x 25
Barbell Curls 45 x 30
Barbell Wrist Curls 45 x 30

Life is good, WIM

Hand #8

I messed up on the river here. UTG straddles to 10 and announces its his last of the night (he always straddles UTG on his last hand). His chips are racked, he had a great night and I love to put pressure on players in these spots if I can. Many times they'll give up medium strength hands and just lock the win up. It folds to me in the SB and I call with Th8h, the BB completes and the straddle checks so we take the flop 3 ways.

It comes 8s4s3c and I lead for 20. The BB folds and the straddle calls. The turn pairs the board 4d and I bet 35. He sort of frowns and just grabs the remaining chips that aren't racked up and slides them into the pot. It turns out to be just 85 total. I take a second to consider what he might have and here's where I make my mistake. I finally decide he's pretty polarized here into having a 4 in his hand or having air. I didn't even consider him having 8x here and might have been putting in a small raise to buy a showdown. I just sort of figure he had it or was bluffing. Since that's where I put him I decided I would call and evaluate the river.

The river is the Td and in my mind it didn't change anything. I still figured he had air or a 4 so I quickly checked and he immediately checked back. As soon as he did I realized he had 8x and I totally missed a bet. I rolled my hand over and he gave me the eyeroll and said he had a better 8 as he walked to the cashier. I don't think betting the river every time is a good idea but I should at least be considering it and do a more thorough in-hand evaluation of ranges.

Alright, new week! I finished super far under calories last week, well at least my FitBit says I did. I saved up a bunch for the weekend, but didn't end up going too crazy. Missed opportunities!

Today I lifted for 80 minutes.

Here is what it looked like:

Low Bar Back Squat 150 x 15
Push-ups BW x 22
Sit-ups BW+45 x 28
Low Bar Back Squat 150 x 15
Push-ups BW x 23
Crunches BW+45 x 28
Low Bar Back Squat 150 x 15
Push-ups BW x 24
Elbow Plank BW x 75 seconds
Low Bar Back Squat 150 x 15
Dumbbell Curls 27.5 x 25
Arms-High Partial Sit-ups BW+45 x 32
Low Bar Back Squat 150 x 15
Barbell Curls 55 x 25
Mountain Climbers BW+45 x 32
High Bar Back Squat 150 x 10
Dumbbell Shoulder Press 27.5 x 25
Heel Touch Crunches BW+45 x 34
Tip Toe Squat 145 x 10

I'm actually most pleased with the dumbbell shoulder press 27.5x25 (each arm) because I thought there was no way I could do it. Not great form, but got all the reps up and down.

Now off to play some disc golf!

Life is good, WIM

Hand #9

Interesting hand here. After one limper, MP raises to 25 and I just flat on the button with AdKc. We pick up the BB and limper and take the flop 4 ways. It comes Ac6c7d and now the BB leads for 50. After a few seconds the original raiser makes it 185 and I go into evaluation mode. I've played tons of hours with him so I feel pretty confident in ranging him pretty well here.

He's got tons of Ax in his range here, more weighted towards T, J, Q, and K kickers, though I have the latter blocked. I can discount most of his bigger hands like sets or aces up because he's flatting a lot of those to get me to put a raise in behind me. Couple this with the fact that the BB leading only has about 200 behind after leading for 50 and it looks like he's just trying to isolate him. The BB is a pretty big action player so I would happily be isolating with any ace here, I'm sure he is, too. Since I've got the Kc in my hand, he can't have nut flush draw, and since I'm not folding on the turn if a club hits, I flat. Somewhat surprisingly, the BB just flats as well.

The turn brings an off suit T and the BB promptly ships his last 40 and without thinking about it too much either, the villain ships his 585 stack. He's really showed a lotta strength at every point in the hand, and I'm certainly worried. He doesn't stack off super light very frequently, and when he's in there betting and raising he's almost always got it. I don't love the T as it makes a couple more hands that beat me but with all my analysis so far in the hand, it really weights this spot toward calling. My instincts are actually telling me that we're chopping here, but with range analysis I'm actually ahead quite a bit of the time so I call.

Turns out he was getting a little frisky with QcTc and fortunately bricked the river. My hand was good for the main pot and I scooped one of the bigger pots of the night.

Put on Hard Knocks and swung around the kettlebells

Yesterday I lifted for 80 minutes

Here is what it looked like:

Russian swings 18x30
Russian swings 35x20
Russian swings 50x10
Russian swings 18x60
Russian swings 35x40
Russian swings 50x20
Right arm tree press 18x15
Left arm tree press 18x15
Right arm overhead press 35x10
Left arm overhead press 35x10
Right arm push press 50x5
Weighted sit-ups 18x30
Weighted sit-ups 35x20
Weighted sit-ups 50x10
Weighted sit-ups 18x60
Weighted sit-ups 35x40
Weighted sit-ups 50x20
Right arm floor press 18x30
Left arm floor press 18x30
Right arm floor press 35x20
Left arm floor press 35x20
Right arm floor press 50x10
Left arm floor press 50x10
Right arm floor press 18x60
Left arm floor press 18x60
Right arm floor press 35x40
Left arm floor press 35x40
Right arm floor press 50x20
Left arm floor press 50x20
Right forearm curls 18x20
Left forearm curls 18x20
Right arm hammer curls 18x20
Left arm hammer curls 18x20
Skull crushers 18x30
Skull crushers 35x20

Watched some preseason football when it was over. Excited to NFL this year!

I'll probably lift when I get up today.

Life is good, WIM

Hand #10

Misplayed the river here. After a couple people limp I make it 30 with black AA on the high jack. The CO and button call and we take a flop 3 ways. It comes KJ5 two spades and I bet 50. The CO pretty quickly makes it 115. After the button folds I look at our stacks. We have about 1k behind each and I think his hand is weighted toward made hands and less toward draws but I think it's a mixture of both. He certainly has some combination of draws, made hands that beat me and made hands that I'm ahead of. Either way I'm not folding here for 65 more, especially having the As in my hand.

The turn brings the 8s and after a moment I decide to lead here for 180. This really is more of just a balance play against this opponent. He's obviously not folding any flushes, but there's a chance he folds a hand like 2 pair. He also might just flat with a flush here and not charge me more to draw. It's probably not a great play in a vacuum, and not one I make super often, but against this opponent it's more to just mix up my play and add deception.

After quite a while the villain calls and the river brings a nice looking 4s. After thinking for about 30 seconds I decide to check. Pretty big mistake here I finally decided. Since he obviously doesn't have the nuts I was thinking he might bluff at it. I left out an important detail here, the K on board was not a spade so the Ks was very easily in his range here. I know for certain he's value betting the Ks, but not totally sure how much worse. After a while he finally checked back announcing top 2, no spade and I sheepishly roll over the nuts.

After thinking back I have to be betting here like 200-240 almost every time. He’s probably calling me with many more hands than he’s thin value betting or bluffing with, and the times he does bet I’m not getting any more value when I check raise. Not totally sure, but betting this river seems far superior to checking it.

Hand #11

As I am getting ready to look at my cards, I look down and realize I'm on the button and had forgotten to straddle. I figure I saved money until I look... QQ! I survey the action and after a few limpers I make it 40. I pick up the UTG limper and the CO limper and we take the flop 3 ways.

It comes 578r and after UTG checks the CO just immediately ships his entire $450 stack into the middle. I am quite confused by this so I give myself some time to think. He had just doubled up the very last hand and had barely finished stacking the chips before he had shoved them in the pot. In a vacuum, I think this is almost always a very strong hand. He just doubled up and flopped a big hand and doesn't want to get drawn out on so he is just going to put all of his chips in the middle to try and take it down without contest. I've played enough with this player to figure it's not likely he's doing this with a hand like A8 or 99. Even a hand like 67 he's not going to just spazz ship. So I sort of shrug fold and after UTG folded, I sort of pried, asking if he had 'flopped it?' and he showed 77. Hooray for saving money!

Hand #12

A PLO hand! This is something that I've sort of been incorporating into my game. It's especially important in PLO where I'm limited in my bluff and semi-bluff sizing by the size of the pot. In other words, there are times where I check the flop in position with draws where I can't bet very much, but on the turn if there's a bet, I can actually raise quite a bit more and threaten stack sizes.

So after a raise to 15 I call on the button with KT85 (K high clubs) and we take a multi-way flop of K24 with two clubs. Now at face value this looks like a monster hand and if the stack sizes were much shallower in relation to the pot it's a super easy spot to get it all in. But with everyone deep and lots of people to the flop it's not really that great of a hand. So when the action checks to me I am fairly happy to check back. I'm not doing it every time, but I don't expect the nut flush draw to fold for a pot sized bet, and there's not a lot of better hands I'm folding out if I bet the max. I think betting here is totally fine, but I think this type of hand is over-rated and I'm happy to re-evalute on the turn, especially because this game is so trap happy and if I bet 100 and someone check raises to 400 I'm most likely crushed and have to fold.

The turn brings an offsuit 7, giving me 3 more outs to the nut- gutshot draw. After a few people check, a player leads for 50, the next player calls and now it's my turn. I've got top set blocked, and I've played enough with the bettor to figure he's usually got some sort of mediocre two pair here. Pretty straight forward player, he's just sort of betting less than half the pot with a thing that he thinks is good about half the time, and is sort of just hoping to get called instead of raised. The player who called is almost always weak here, he would be sticking in some real chips if he had a hand even like kings up so I feel pretty good about sticking in a big raise here. I decide to make it 250. This will force the nut flush draw out behind me (it will in this game, not all games) and will probably force the two players with 50 out to fold their hands. Not to mention I usually have plenty of equity here.

The first bettor sort of shakes his head muttering he should have just checked his two pair and the and the next guy folds pretty quickly. Hooray for folds! Now I don't have to make my hand!