Yes, I played a flush draw
Recently I was playing in a one table tournament with Steve and a few other guys that live near us. I limped into a hand from the small blind with K♦4♦ with the blinds at 50-100. Adam, immediately to my left in the big blind, raised to 400. All the other limpers folded except one, who called the 300 more.
I decided to call 300 more chips (I had 8000 at this point). Why? The pot was at 1200 with my 100 already in there and a few limpers folding, so I was getting 4-1 on my money. I decided that I probably wasn’t dominated by AK or KQ, but if I was I’d find out on the flop and get away from the hand without a problem. I was certainly up against an Ax or maybe even a strong pocket pair like 10&spades10♦. Even so, with a good flop I could take down a nice sized pot and maybe even get someone all in.
The flop came A♥ 9♦ 3♦.
I thought for a second and checked - I definitely hadn’t given up the hand and I didn’t want someone to make a continuation bet thinking I had. Adam bet out strong for 1100, which was about a pot sized bet. I knew he had an A, but I wasn’t sure how strong. It had to be better than A9 for him to raise from the big blind. Then there was the button limper who call-called preflop. He called the 1100 (to my surprise). Suddenly I was getting perfect odds to draw to my flush, so I did. I threw in the 1100 chips. I had 6600 left in front of me after this call.
The turn was a blank, 6♣. I checked again, hoping that maybe Adam would slow down with a weak ace, afraid the button was slowplaying something. But he didn’t, he bet 2700. The pot was already 4500, which made this bet a bit more than half the pot. Again the button called (again I was surprised, he would certainly raise with AK or AQ, how could he think AJ or worse was good?).
This is where people start questioning my play.
I was getting about 3.5 to 1 on my money if I called this bet, but at the same time if I won this pot without anyone putting any more chips in it I’d have 1/3 of the chips in play with 9 people left in the game. It’s not an easy win, but it puts me in a great position. If people commit more chips on the river I would have over 1/3 of the chips in play. So I had a chance to win 1/3 of the chips, I still had 4000 chips if I called the 2700, and if the right card hit I could bust 1, maybe 2 people. I called, it was an easy call.
The river was a blank, I check-folded and my two opponents each showed AJ and chopped up my chips.
I ended the hand losing half of my stack, but I was only 1000 short of 5000 (which was average). In this game I can win 1000 chips preflop if I pick up the right hand. So I wasn’t in a bad position at all after the hand and after weighing the risks and rewards I would have played the hand the same way.
Adam claims I should have suspected someone to have 2 pair, but I didn’t because I think after his 2700 chips bet on the turn someone with 2 pair would have been raising hoping to get all in against AK or a worse two pair. Adam bets his top pairs strong, and I was right to assume he had A9 or better. He didn’t have two pair either. I read each player correctly (for the most part) and lost about 50% of my chips chasing a flush draw that would have given me 35% of the chips in play.
I’ll play it like that again if I get the chance. Hopefully I’ll catch the damn diamond next time…
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2 Comments to “Yes, I played a flush draw”
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Steven
November 3rd, 2005 at 1:41 am
My only problem was in a tournament situation you can go up quickly or keep your original 8k and wait for a better situation to get some more chips. We start with 5k so you were already in fine position. And everyone had Ben pinned on the flush draw, it was like he said it out loud (maybe he did, it was just really obvious). Adam and I were asking Ben why he was chasing the flush during the hand, haha.
On the other hand, I can see how taking this chance isn’t so horrible, after all it was still 9-handed, no one had been knocked out yet, so had Ben won he would have had a massive chip lead with an almost full table. And on other side note, I would’ve won the hand with A7, spiking two pair on the river! God damnit.
Ben
November 7th, 2005 at 4:59 pm
Having 8k is not that great of a position, anyone can win a big pot and take the chip lead from me. If I win that pot I could have walked away from the table for an hour, come back, and still been in a great position.