Slowplaying the nut-flush

cosmo kramer · #1 06-03-2003, 12:29 PM

Played this hand yesterday and was wondering what others thought.

Great 6-12 game. I'm in the BB with A [img]/forums/images/icons/heart.gif[/img] K [img]/forums/images/icons/heart.gif[/img] . CO-1 limps, button limps, SB raises, I call, limpers call. 4 to the flop.

Flop- 7 [img]/forums/images/icons/heart.gif[/img] 3 [img]/forums/images/icons/heart.gif[/img] 2 [img]/forums/images/icons/spade.gif[/img] .

SB checks, I check, CO-1 bets, button calls, SB calls, I raise, CO-1 3-bet, we lose all others, it is now heads up.

Turn-Q [img]/forums/images/icons/heart.gif[/img] . I check, call.

River-9 [img]/forums/images/icons/club.gif[/img] . I check-raise.

I was wondering what others thought about waiting until the river. The reason I am asking is that we went four bets on the river until he realized what I had. Did I just get lucky this time or was this a smart play?

angry young man · #2 06-03-2003, 12:46 PM

preflop I would 3 bet almost every time. If it really is a good game no one is going anywhere and you're just about guaranteed to have the best hand right now.

since you just called preflop I might check here but with an AK high flush draw I'd consider betting straight out. The checkraise works well thanks to the perfect player (1 to your left) betting, it's unfortunate that he 3 bet.

I think checking on the turn is automatic since he 3 bet the flop, I like not checkraising here because a lot of people checkraise nut flush draws on the flop so if you were to checkraise here (especially after slowing down a minute ago) it'd make your hand a pretty clear read. Though maybe not by this guy, did he show his hand?

Barry · #3 06-03-2003, 01:02 PM

I like your play here.

While I would rather have position in these types of situations, in this case CO has shown so much strength on the flop, he is likely to continue betting the turn and river until he's played back at.

What did he have? My guess is that he had a smaller flush something like JT [img]/forums/images/icons/heart.gif[/img].

Zag · #4 06-03-2003, 01:30 PM

I think you should have 3 bet preflop. If you drop the limpers, then AK plays great heads up with position and you have their limp-in as dead money. If they stay in, as "angry" said, you almost certainly have best hand right now.

I think that waiting for the river to check-raise is a great play here, but not all the time. Note that if another heart comes, you've killed your action, because he almost certainly doesn't have any hearts and the highest he could have is the jack.

However, by check-calling, you made him think that the flush possibility scared you, making him feel confidant with his set of sevens.

By the way, I totally disagree with Barry that he could have had a smaller flush. He never would have 3-bet on the flop with a draw -- all it did was chase away his customers. I suspect that he had 77. (He would have raised preflop with QQ.)

Ulysses · #5 06-03-2003, 02:38 PM

I'd 3-bet pre-flop and bet the flop.

Lost Wages · #6 06-03-2003, 05:34 PM

In general, if you turn the nut flush you should get your raises then because if the fourth suited card comes on the river you may not even get a call.

Lost Wages

cosmo kramer · #7 06-03-2003, 09:14 PM

There were three reasons that I didn't 3-bet preflop- 1) These limpers weren't going anywhere, 2) to disguise my hand, and 3) I had bad position on the field. If the preflop raiser had a hand like AQ or KQ, I would get more action from him postflop.

The reason that I check-raised the flop rather than bet is that with such low cards, I wanted to trap the others who might be taking one off. If I bet and get raised, I lose all my customers.