It’s one thing to hold the best poker hand and know you’re about to win. It’s another art entirely to extract the maximum value from it. One of the ways to do that, as counterintuitive as it may sound, is to check when you have the nuts.
Let’s take a look at a professional poker hand on the subject. The player: Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari. Circa: WPT championship, LV April 2008.
The blinds are 50-100 and Esfandairi is in late position, two players limp in ahead him. Four after. He limps as well. Seven players. He’s holding A-J off. The flop comes K-10-Q two hearts. Giving the Magician the nut straight. But there’s flush draw on the board. One of his opponents limped in with K-2 off, and has paired with the board. Check comes around to Esfandairi, who bets 550.
Five folds, and now it’s just Esfandairi and vs. the Pair of Kings. At this point, he’s only got to worry about getting the most money in the pot. Unfortunately for Esfandairi, he doesn’t succeed in this hand. The turn comes 5 clubs. Esfandairi bets 1625, nearly 100% of the pot.
And his opponent calls. River comes 4 of spades. If there was a flush draw, it’s officially busted. Esfandairi now know’s he’s totally set.
So he checks. His opponent also checks. It’s unfortunate in this situation that he decided to call off his betting. After a strong lead out and a high continuation bet, he had set the stage to keep up with the betting. Even if his opponent couldn’t have put him on the straight, the bet itself would be more consistent with a high pair or a flat out bluff.
The fact that he checked on the river, reeks of classic poker trickery and trying to make a move. And in this case his opponent was astute enough to catch on.