A flush draw gets there

Good step in the right direction tonight.

After donking off a nice stack in the rebuy tournament, I came back to book a $940 win in the 2-5 game. That takes the pressure off putting up $400 for Sunday's big tournament.

I won a couple pots and lost a couple to start the game and was hanging around even. I limped in a straddled pot with the field with 87h. The flop came down K53 with two hearts. Three players checked to me, and I tried to take down the pot with a $55 bet into the $70 pot.

A loose player behind me raised most of his stack, and then another player moved all-in. We all started the hand with around $300. I was prepared to fold to the one player, but getting them both in there changed things.

Now I would be getting over 3-1 on my money. (Having to call about $220 into a pot of about $670.) I called my money off, the raiser followed suit, as I expected, and I rivered the 6 of hearts to beat their two pair. (K5 for the original raiser, 53 for the other player)

That put me nicely in the win column. I held steady and won a couple small pots before putting the cherry on top of my win.

One player limped, and I raised ATc. Two players behind me called, along with the limper. The flop came A43 rainbow. The first player checked, and I did something I almost never do and checked as well.

I am a regular continuation bettor (betting on the flop after raising before the flop, regardless of what the flop is). And my opponents may not know this, but I have almost never raised before the flop, then checked on the flop when it helped me.

The few times I have not made a continuation bet, I have always had nothing and had given up the pot.

I changed that up in this pot. One player behind me checked, and the last player, who is also the most likely to know that I always make continuation bets if I have something, bet the whole pot, $85.

He could very well just call my raise with AQ or AJ, but he would also call with a lot of smaller suited aces as well. When I check, he is also capable of trying to take the pot away from me.

I was his only caller. The turn was a K, completing the rainbow. I checked and he checked. The river was an A. If I bet, he will call me with any ace, but he will also raise me with full houses that I will probably pay off, given how the hand was played. If he was bluffing on the flop, he will obviously fold.

I checked, and he bet the whole pot, $255. I studied for about half a minute (mainly to make it appear that I would consider folding to big river bluffs in the future), then called.

He didn't say anything, and I knew I was good. "Full house?" I asked. He shook his head, and I tabled my hand.

So he was definitely bluffing, and my river check turned out to be the absolute best play on this hand.

I'm feeling good. I'm going to try and win this son of a bitch on Sunday.