This hand comes from yesterday’s $300 6-max tournament on Full Tilt. This would be a great tournament if it got more runners, as 6-max tables make for deeper stacks and more opportunities to play pots. Anyway, I don’t remember exact stack sizes, but blinds were around 250/500, and we each had 12K or so.
The action folded around to me in the SB, and I open completed Qh 7h. The BB and I had played together in a few other tournaments, and I knew him to be an over-aggressive maniac who would make some crazy bluffs and overvalue medium-strength holdings. In other words, he was a guy I’d much rather have on my right than my left, but such is life. I had already doubled through him once this tournament by check-raising top pair after raising pre-flop.
He checked, which told me that he didn’t have much of a hand. He’s just not the kind of guy to check anything he liked in that spot. The flop was Ad Qc 5c, giving me middle pair. I checked, and BB bet the minimum of 500. I thought it very unlikely for him to check an A pre-flop or to bet it so small on the flop. A flush draw or just air seemed most likely. I called.
The turn was a 3d, putting a second flush draw on the board, and I checked again. Again, my opponent bet just 500. At this point, I think I should have raised him, since I was very sure my hand was good. He could easily be on a draw and might even get angry and decide to 3-bet bluff me. But, at the time, I just called, planning to call a non-club river.
The river was another blank, I checked, and this time he made a larger bet of about 1600. It just didn’t make sense for him to have a strong hand, especially given the kind of player he was. Why would he bet small on a dangerous flop and turn and then bet big when all the draws miss on the river? I called, and he showed me 4c 8c for a busted flush draw, corroborating my suspicion that a turn check-raise was called for.
Thisis a mistake I’ve been making a fair amount recently. I make some good reads but play too passively, sometimes allowing semi-bluffers to get there. It’s something to work on.