I get dealt Ace hearts, 10 diamonds in mid position.
1 player folds 2 early callers limp in..
I limp in too.
Everyone after me folds, The small blind calls and the big blind checks.
ON THE FLOP IS: Jack hearts, 6 hearts, 5 clubs
(This totally does not flop for me....all I have is a backdoor flush draw)
1st player bets big blind amount The rest of us 3 follow and call.
ON THE TURN IS: 9 hearts
Everyone checks until me, who is last to bet.
I've got a flush draw now. I decide to bet the big blind.
3 players call, 1 folds.
ON THE RIVER IS: King diamonds
Everyone checks.
I had noticed while playing at this table for the last 1/2 hour, that everyone seemed more on the tighter side...not too many aggressive raises or preflop raises, unless someone really had some high pockets or an ace with a face card.
So the play on this hand seemed very weak, with everyone checking. I sensed they all feared that someone had got their flush on the turn.
I decided to represent that flush and bet the pot, especially since I had bet the previous round after everyone checked.
It worked immediately, everyone folded.
If I had not bet the pot...the fact that everyone called a big blind bet after checking, meant that someone probably had a better hand than me and had paired one of their cards on the board.
With a pot size bet with a flush on the board, I stole the pot!
Nice play, that was certainly the only way you were going to take down that pot and your read on your fellow players was right on. That move doesn't work everytime but you are correct that a check a lot of the time means weakness, but make sure you know your players too. If one of the players involved had a history of check raising, I probably would have just checked and taken my loss, but betting was the only way you were going to win the pot.
