[floppy]

OK, first post, so be gentle:

PP $10 + 1. Blinds are 30/60:

9 players
5 folds
Me (~1400) 9 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 8 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] call 60
CO (~1700) call 60
Button (~1700) raise to 120
SB folds
BB folds
I call to 120
CO calls to 120

Flop:
J [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] Q [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] K [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

I decide to try and take the pot by betting 500. The two big stacks to my left both call.

Turn:
5 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

My thinking: There are 3 cards that, with another spade, have me beat. It's likely that, if one of the two other players has one of those cards, that it's not the nuts and that fact could paralyze them into checking it down.

I check.

First big stack bets 500, second calls.

There's now about 3000 in chips sitting there, so I raise all in (I only have 300 left after the raise)

All show:

Stack 1: J [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] Q [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]
Stack 2: straight draw w/1 pair (I think)

So in one respect, I got a good result for the wrong reasons. But:

- I'm thinking that I could have had the pot on the flop with an all-in then and there (my read was that neither had a higher flush draw)

- Conversely, the flop was bound to hit people in a very solid way, so perhaps the correct move was to check. If CO raises the size of the pot and Button calls, I'm getting correct odds. If CO raises size of pot and Button folds, I could still call, since I think I'd get correct implied odds. If CO checks and Button raises...I'm not sure.

So I guess my questions are:

- Should I have checked or bet on the flop? If a bet, what size? If a check, how should I respond to a bet?

- Once the flush came, how should I have played it?

- Was my read of no Ax, Jx or 10x of spades reasonable? (In a general sense. They didn't seem like very good players, but I'd never seen them play before.)