Another well-played hand

Like last time:  A $1/$3 no-limit table with nine players.

The two blinds posted.  The player under-the-gun folded.  The next player called the big blind for $3.  He was pathetically bad, and his weak limp didn’t mean a thing to me.

The next three players folded, and it was up to me.  I looked down at my hand, and – Hello!  Ace of Spades, King of Spades!

Frequently, I will raise (or re-raise) with this hand, like most folks.  Sometimes I’ll just limp to change up my play a bit.  This time around, I decided to limp, so I put out my $3.

I didn’t have to wait long for it to be popped though!  The player to my left put in a raise to $12.  He had just barely come to the table so I didn’t have a great read on him, but something made me feel as though he had a really big hand; maybe a high pocket pair.

All of the other players folded, included the first limper, and it was back to me, heads-up.  I was facing a $9 raise.

I generally feel that if I’m not willing to take Ace-King to the flop, even in the face of a modest raise, I should give up my license to play poker.  So I put the extra chips out there, and we saw the flop.  As always with “Big Slick”, I’m definitely prepared to lay it down if the flop misses me.

Well, the flop hit me pretty nicely:  Seven of Spades, Ace of Diamonds, Eight of Diamonds.

I figured I probably had the best hand, unless he was playing some kind of Ace-rag and hit two pair (very doubtful because of his pre-flop strength).  I wasn’t thrilled to see the flush cards out there; I was less concerned about any straight.  He’d played it so strong pre-flop that I really didn’t feel as though I had much risk here.  So, even though I’ll usually lead out with a nice bet on such a coordinated board, instead I just checked.

I was rewarded with a hearty bet by my opponent of $15 into a $30 pot.

This bet size really made me feel much more comfortable that he wasn’t on any kind of draw; it was consistent with a big pair or maybe some kind of Ace (Ace/Queen?  Ace/King?).  Realizing that I still almost certainly had the best hand, I called.

The turn brought the Ten of Spades.  A modest help for my spade flush draw, but I was still really playing the Ace.  I checked again, to see whether my adversary would continue to hang himself.

He put out $40 into a $60 pot, a serious overbet.  It could hardly be sweeter.  Unless he had Ace/Ten, I was still in great shape . . . and I also had one of the flush draws working for me.  I called.

Now the river:  The Three of Diamonds.  The flush card for diamonds; but I totally didn’t put him on that.

Now came time for one of the hardest things in poker:  Deciding the ideal value bet.  I wanted a number low enough for him to call, yet high enough to bring in the most money.  The pot was around $140 . . . a bet of $50 gave him almost four-to-one on a crying call.  I bet; he called; I showed my Ace/King; he mucked his pocket queens, and I reeled in a $240 pot.

Sweet!

He was so tilted that he got up and left.  I think he only played like three hands!  Oh well . . . another satisfied customer.