I played an exciting hand recently in a live 1/2 NL Game. The buy-in ranges from 60-300, so I sat with 300. I sat for about an hour and had a stack of about 350 when this hand came up. In the SB, I have [Qc]. A loose player in LP open-raises to 10. Normally I don't call with KQ here but this guy isn't all that good and he had a decent stack (~220) so I decided to gamble it up and call. BB folds and we are HU.

FLOP: [6c][3c] (Pot: $22)

No complains about that flop. I check. Villian bets 15. I act for a bit and call.

TURN: (Pot: $52)

I lead out for $30. Villian raises to $80. What the heck is this? I go all-in and he beats me to the pot. I believe it was 115 more for the villian to call if it matters.

He showed [Ac]. River paired the 6 and he took it down.

Results aside, I want to know how the hand should have been played. I feel like I played the flop wrong; normally I lead out here, but for some reason I froze up and checked. I then decided not to checkraise because I was 99% sure that he didn't have the flush and if he had AK or an overpair I didn't want to scare him off. I then lead out on the turn for a fairly weak bet in hopes of getting raised. I wouldn't expect a great player to raise there with AK but I thought if he had AK (or AQ) he would likely be raising there, whether or not he had the . At that point he was pot-committed enough so I put him in.

I was never afraid of him having the flush for 2 reasons:

1. 3 of the 5 broadway clubs were out, so realistically the only hand he could have held was [Jc]. Whether or not he raises with that, statistically the chances of him having that hand is very slim.

2. He would never bet that flop with a flush when checked to HU.

However, there was a real chance that he had the , and perhaps I didn't do a good enough job of shutting it out. As it turns out, all our money was going in anyway, but I don't want to be too result-oriented. Does anyone go for the checkraise the turn? Smooth-call the raise and push the river? And if I smooth-call and the 6 comes, do I slow down at all?

I think you were set up for the checkraise on the turn with your check-call on the flop...so, I would have probably done that. Honestly, since he pushed all of his money in immediately in a call to your all-in, he has to be willing to gamble, and he might even think he is ahead here, although I don't know why. But, his beating you to the pot means to me he thought he had the best hand. Even if he puts you on a flush, he still has 17 outs left to hit that will give him a superior hand. Obviously, that is good enough for him.

I would have bet out into the flop, but that is because I don't slowplay anything really. Maybe if you bet the flop and then bet the turn large, he might make a great laydown, but by your description of his skills, I doubt it. But, I still bet it out on the flop and turn.

With your flop play, I checkraise the turn...I don't like waiting for the river to bet up my hands. I don't smooth call though a bet or reraise on the turn, I would push it all in on the turn too. If I had money left on the river and he went all in, I would call the river, even if I didn't want to...but still feel ok about it.

Your play doesn't look all that bad here. You got in with the best of it.

You don't have to lead out on every flop...there is nothing wrong with a little slowplay with a flopped moster like you had. he hit a runner runner full house and no matter what you did..i doubt he was folding.

It looks like this was a hand that you both were just destined to get your money in with and you were gonna lose. Nothing much you could do here IMO.