We don’t typically see check-raising on Replay, much less twice in one hand. I’m rather happy with this hand. Probably got the most value out of it that I could, considering I was out of position.
I’m sitting in the small blind at a 2K-4K ring game facing 6 other players. The hijack is committed to one big blind, as this is his first hand at the table. It folds to him, and he checks his option. The cutoff flats, button folds, and the action is to me.
In this spot, I opt to flat as well. My hand is too strong to fold, but too weak to raise, considering I’ll be out of position for the rest of the hand. It’s fairly rare for big blinds to raise when they have the option to check at these stakes, so I’m fairly comfortable the extra 2K I’m committing to the pot will allow me to see a flop. As expected, the big blind checks his option, and we see a flop.
The flop comes 5h4d7c, giving me top pair with top kicker. This flop is great for my range - in addition to my current hand, I’m probably going to flat 44, 55, 77, and maybe 68s preflop. However, I don’t want to bet now and drive away potential callers, so I opt to play this as a check-raise. The big blind obliges me by min-betting. After both the hijack and cutoff call the minbet, I check-raise to 5.5BB into a pot of 7BB. This got folds from the big blind, but both hijack and cutoff call.
The turn brings the ace of hearts, making the board (5h4d7c)Ah. This doesn’t change the strength of my hand relative to my opponents - I’ll still have the nut straight and all the sets in my range, and nobody should have made a set with the ace, since nobody opened preflop. However, there’s now the potential for a backdoor heart flush. As a result, this is a mandatory barrel. I opt for a size of 65K into a pot of 86K. The hijack calls, cutoff folds, and we head to the river.
Yahtzee. I make top boat when the ace of diamonds falls, making the board (5h4d7cAh)Ad. Now, how to extract maximum value? I opt to check and induce a bluff from my opponent. Thankfully, it works. He makes a half-pot bet of 108K into a pot of 216K. I check-raise to 324K… but he folds. I don’t think I could have used a much smaller size, and even if I did I’m not sure he would have called.
Thoughts on how I played the hand? What bluffs, if any, would you have put in my range on the river?