[norshvind]

Paradise Poker .05/.10 $10 buy-in NL

I'm on the BB with Jh6h. The pot is not raised, and I check. Five people see the flop

(Pot $.50) Flop- Jc9h5h. I have top pair/weak kicker with a flush draw. SB checks. Now my hand isn't great, I'm really rooting to win right here. A check-call is not an option. I need to weed out the field and know where I stand so I bet $.50

One player folds, three others call.

(Pot $2.50) Turn- (Jc9h5h)8h. Great now I made my flush, but with three callers on my flop bet, I'm sure I'm not alone. At the very least, one of my opponents has the lone Ah or Kh. Once again, I can not check this hand down. I risk getting played back at, even if no one else has a flush. Well, there's only one way to find out where I stand. I bet $1. I suspected my hand was no good, but yet I wanted to bet enough to not show too much weakness. I didn't want to push the non-nut flush too hard. If anyone played back at me, well I would have to make a tough laydown. Two players called my bet. At this point, I knew there was a good chance I was beat, maybe even the third best hand. My hope now was to show down my flush for cheap or free. I was fully prepared to check-fold on the river if there were a big bet, but I knew I could not bet the river, a lesser flush might fold, but a bigger one certainly wont.

(Pot $5.50) River 7h. Holy freaking cow!!! My dog turned instantly into the nuts with the fall of one card.

There were four hearts on the board, almost guaranteeing that both my opponets now had a flush, but only one of them was the nuts. Since they both only called my bet on the turn I couldn't be sure who had the goods. The question now was how do I get them both all-in? If I lead at the flop, I feared that one of my opponents might fold. So I decided to go for a check raise. The first guy to act after me had about $3 left. He moves all-in. Well now I got the short stack in so my plan seemed to be working. The button has about $12 and raises it up to $5 (telling me he had the nut flush). Now I had them both where I wanted them. I came in over the top and moved the button all-in. He calls.

Button shows flush-ace high, short stack shows flush-queen high. I show straight flush-nine high and drag a nice pot.

I got exactly what I wanted, but in hindsight I wonder if slowplaying was indeed correct, or if it really didn't matter. Obviously the guy with the nut flush was going all in (especially with no pair on board). But I wasn't sure how likely the other flush would go in as well. I'm just wondering if I just pushed rather than check raise would I have gotten all the money anyway. How would you have played the hand?

[ballen]

Definitely bet, hoping someone has a flush as well which was the case.

[vincent]

Well i think i would play it the same as you until the river. I would put out a fairly weak bet to show weakness, but not weak enough to seem like i am trapping...

[johnf]

i would have started the betting on the river because its pretty obvious there that at least one of them had the ace igh flush so i knew that i would have gotten at least 1 call instead of risking them not betting but than again if you have the ace high flush you would bet so either way would work

[razor]

Well it's hard to fault your play on the river, since you had read your opponents perfectly. If you hadn't put them on a flush draw, I might say otherwise. Good job.

I think (and mind you that my NL experience is VERY limited) that your $1 raise on the turn was too small. If my calculations are correct from your story, that made the pot $4.25. If your opponents were infact looking for a miracle 4th heart on the river, you were giving them the pot odds to draw to it. In your situation, I would have raised higher hoping to get my opponents to drop-- folding if someone came over the top.

But again, I mostly play limit.

[razor]

I was pretty sure that at least one other player had already made the flush with me. I bet $1 into the pot as a feeler bet. I knew my hand was probably beat, but I wanted to show it down anyway just in case. I felt if I pushed too hard, someone might just push back, so I want to invest as little as possible, and at the same time see where I stood.