When Peter’s in the hand, fireworks usually follow — and this one was no exception. In a spot where he finds a well-timed raise, Peter manages to squeeze some extra value out of Nik Airball. The action kicked off with Airball’s open to $10,000 holding K♠9♠, Kiki called with 9♥8♦ and Peter came along with A♠J♠.
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Airball’s open is good, but the flat from Kiki is not, and it gives the opportunity to Peter to squeeze holding A♠J♠, but Peter decides just to call, which is not optimal playing out of position vs. two players.
The flop came 7♣4♠J♥, giving Peter top pair with a top kicker and some backdoors. Kiki flopped a gutshot, and Airball had backdoors only. Three players checked, which should be fine, but the lead from Peter would also be an okay play as his hand needs some protection, and he can put pressure on some gutshots and a smaller pair of hands.
The 7♠ hit the turn, and Peter decides to lead for $20,000 when both players can have a seven; they most likely don’t have jack as they would bet it on the flop, so maybe the play that makes the most money is check-call, but lead is also not bad.
Kiki made the call which is horrible as he can never river the nuts, and even if he hit his gutshot, it is often going to be a spade or even a full house of another player, which would put him in a hard spot where he will have to pay off the big bet. Airball also called, which is fine, but not great for the same reasons. The pot was $92,500.
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The river was 6♠, giving Peter the highest flush, but the board is still paired, and he has to be cautious even though other players didn’t show enough strength on previous streets to represent a full house. Peter checked, and Kiki continued with mistakes, and this one was worse than the previous ones as he had the worst possible blockers. He has no spades to block some combos of flushes, and he is blocking some “trash” hands his opponents could have, like ten-nine, eights, nines, and some suited combos of eight-five, which would maybe call the turn bet (low frequency/common mistake they make). So basically, Kiki is trying to get his opponents off the top pair or better.
Airball just called as he is aware of the relative strength of his hand, but Peter threw in a nice value raise, which is good as it’s unlikely his opponents have a full house, but there are plenty of weaker hands like trips and weaker flushes that can pay him off. He also has a pair of jacks, which reduces the number of full house combos his opponents can have (JJ, J7s, J7o).
Airball had a tough decision, but his opponents rarely raise bluffing the river, especially with action on previous streets. The only hope for Airball is that Peter is unaware, and he decided to raise a weaker flush. Even though it seems a tight fold is the best play for Airball, he made the call and lost the pot of $842,500 with a lower flush.
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