[wiggs73]

Pre-flop I think my line is standard. When he called, I put him on a weak-ish ace or a medium PP.

On the flop, I chose to check rather than to make a probe bet because I felt that if he was loose enough to call a sizeable raise pre-flop with a weak ace that he would also call or raise on the flop when he paired his ace. I checked with the intention of calling a bet hoping that if he had a weak ace that we'd check the hand down and if he had a PP, that he'd bet once and we'd again check it down, this time with me gaining a few chips along the way. I also thought about a him having a flush draw on the flop.

The turn went check, check, and my range for him didn't change since the turn check behind was probably standard for any of those hands (weak ace, PP, flush draw). The river came a spade, putting a 3-flush on the board. His bet seemed large not to have a hand better than KK, but I called anyway for a couple of reasons. One was that I could also see him making this bet with a hand like KQ, JJ, or TT, though in hindsight I would think he'd check JJ and TT. I think I had to have put him on at least an ace here, and likely a flush, and that a fold would have been standard on the river. The other reason was that a call wouldn't kill me since it was so early.

It turns out he did have KTs with the flush. I managed to build my stack back to t835, but still busted OTM. If I could have seen his cards, a continuation bet would have been the correct play on the flop, though I wasn't crazy about making one out of position. I think I played the hand ok until the river. Hopefully my thought process is online with others'.