Implied Odds working against us?

[NiceCatch]

That's one of my favorite tactics too. Raising with a bad draw in short-handed play (4max or 5max) makes your play much harder to decipher as well, and will often be enough to steal the pot on the flop. When you actually do hit your draw against another big hand, it's hidden, and you can put a ridiculous bet in on the river. You'll be surprised how often it will be called.

I saw a horrendous beat while watching a heads up 2-5NL match the other day. Player A has AA, Player B has ?. Player A just doubled the BB, player B called. They both put in $50 on the flop, which was 25Q. I believe B potted the flop and, A raised to $50, B called. Turn comes a 3, and the bets escalate little by little until both are all-in. Both had about $1k. So what did player B have? 46, for the turned nut straight. Beautifully played, completely hidden. And with excellent implied odds (about 18:1 for the flop bet). Obviously the flow of play convinced A that B didn't have QQ or some other pocket pair... but man. Harsh beat.

[NiceCatch]

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You need to consider it a victory that the opponent overpaid for a draw and then did not get paid off by you when it hit.

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That is the gospel truth. I play implied odds with bad players. Good players who don't pay off the made draws reduce my impression of the implied odds they will give me. I generally don't draw on very good players.

That might ultimately be the measure of how good an NL player is, since NL is about winning huge pots and breaking other players; the lower the implied odds they give, the better the player. Mix in a little trickiness, disciplined preflop play, and good decision-making on the flop, and you have a first-class NL player.

Last night I was playing with a guy, hadn't played with him before. I got involved in a hand where he had preflop raised. I called with QJ. Board comes out AQx, with two spades. He underbet the pot and I called. My hand didn't improve, but the third spade came on the turn. He was putting in 2/3rd sized pot bets (acting after me). On the river I decided to test him. I overbet the pot, putting in half my stack. He called with AK (no spades). I reloaded, played solid poker, overbet the pot on the river with every strong hand I had (regardless of what was on the board; he clearly wasn't going to get pushed off of his hand), and took two buy-ins off of him. There were some pretty ridiculous boards too; paired boards, flush boards, etc. Didn't phase him a bit. (FYI, this was a 4max table. It's much easier to key on a player at short-handed tables.)