Earning

An alright session last night. It only reaped $36 over about three hours, but my cards were cold and so I really felt like I earned my money. Some well-timed bluffs, a value pre-flop call versus two all-in short stacks, and a hand I was really pleased with:
I had raised pre-flop with Aces, suited in clubs. One of the callers was a player who had proved himself quite tricky but not usually ‘out of line’.

The flop came fairly ragged, with two hearts and one club. He check-called me. The turn was the king of clubs, and now he bet but bet small. This had me thinking. I now had the nut flush draw, and considered raising with that and my (unimproved) Aces. But something about his betting patterns told me that he had just made a set of kings. His small bet, which was probably made to tempt me to raise, was giving me something like 4/1 to hit my flush and so I just called.

Bing! River was a club. He checked, giving me the usual problem of how much to bet with the nuts. Against most of my opponents I would bet pretty small to encourage a crying call. But I felt this guy had a good hand (top set), and the flush was backdoor and thus a little more suspicious (or so people seem to think). Most importantly, his own betting patterns and play suggested to me that he would bet big if he were bluffing in this spot, and would therefore be suspicious of a big bet. I bet just over two thirds the pot very quickly, and he called instantly –with a set of kings.

Sweet. I was happy with this pot because I played it with some thought at appropriate moments and was sensitive to my opponent in my actions.