[nepenthe]

My thoughts as I was playing this hand:

Preflop, pretty standard for me. Might've raised though since this was less than 10 players at the time.

Flop, while the betout would be standard enough, I was very confident a bet was going in this flop anyway because villain will bet (or call if bet to) in position with anything, except he'll possibly check a strong made hand that likely beats me. I thus thought checking has both deceptive and informational purposes, without giving up on bets gained.

Turn, going for the checkraise because villain continuation bets anything here. Picked up the flush draw so facing a 3-bet from anybody is not a tragedy. But he checked it through. Alarm bells went off because this is unusual. If he has a strong hand, he checks the flop as well. It was the combination of him betting the flop AND checking the turn that confused me. He would certainly bet any draw or any weak made hand, or anything else for that matter, on this turn. Believe it or not, at that point my river plan is to check/call UI and look him up.

River, I think I have the best hand with top 2 despite villain's turn check. He always bets here no matter what he has - he doesn't know the meaning of taking free showdowns - so I went for the c/r again. His 3-bet was not entirely unexpected but I kept my foot on the gas while thinking it might be marginal.