How could I have made more bets? I took the other two players down to $5 between them.
That's for starters.
The ONLY thing I'm somewhat fearing on this flop is Ace-rag of diamonds. The check-check-bet took that off the table for me. I'm sitting with top set, and with regard to a straight draw, anybody who doesn't have the
+rag of diamonds can't possibly expect more than 3 of their outs to be good. If they're playing something else, like 42 or 64 in that situation, great for them. Even with the straight draw on board (the other player with A4 had really the only reasonable draw other than A2 for the straight), I was willing to take the risk. Not knowing that one player had AK, especially since he didn't re-raise, I figured (correctly) that a flop lead by a pre-flop raiser meant trouble for them.
Keep in mind that my table image is tight and absurdly aggressive. For the session, I was 13/7.5/3.40.
So, do I lead the flop and risk losing players over a small bet, or sucker them in further for a big one later on? I flat call the flop, making them think that MAYBE I missed AQ or something like it...Trust me, KK was nowhere on this guy's radar. The Ace on thr turn and my lead out just spices it up further, because he thought I just hit my gin card. So I get action. At this point, they're drawing DAMN thin to my set of Ks.
Open mindedly, the only things I'm behind here are:
AA (if he has it, can't help it--go down in flames)
24 (same thing--bless their hearts if they play against me with that)
Diamond draw (didn't feel like it)
46 for the OESD (again--bless their hearts).
So I lead, he check-raises me. I have the nuts here unless he's on AA or 24. Naah. I 3 bet it and get BOTH coming along. How can I extract more bets here? The only way I think I could've gotten more is by inducing UTG to stay, but he tossed to MP2's flop lead.
The river gives BOTH these guys two pair and me a full house. They were WAY behind the whole way. I extracted maximum value out of a hand that could've gotten me just the pre-flop action if I lead out.
The majority of players at 5/10 play their flush draws aggressively. You don't see them check-calling flops like that. As for the straight, if he wanted to call all that to get to his straight, more power to him. Nothing I do would change his mind.