A♠Q♠ CO vs BB, river on K♠ T♥ 7♠ 6♣ 2♠, 80 bb
The spot
- You: CO
- Opponent: BB
- Your hand: A♠Q♠
- Board: K♠ T♥ 7♠ 6♣ 2♠
- Effective stack: 80 bb
- Pot: 17.5 bb
Hero can leverage blocker distribution for polarized pressure.
What action maximizes EV in this polarized node?
See the answer
Best play: Overbet 120% pot
Why
River (K‑T‑7‑6‑2). Three spades are on the board (K-spade, 7-spade, 2-spade) and hero holds A-spade and Q-spade — that is the ace-high NUT FLUSH, the effective nuts on this runout. Against a capped BB that can never have a better flush, this is a pure max-value spot: the polarized overbet is correct and checking the nuts forfeits the largest river value in the entire tree. The prescribed check is clearly wrong.
Key idea
When you hold the nuts against a capped range, size up. The villain cannot punish you, so the only mistake is betting too small — an overbet harvests value from every flush, two pair, and set he keeps.
Common mistake
Checking the nut flush for fear of folding out worse. Against a capped range that calls flushes and two pair, slowplaying the nuts simply leaves bets uncollected.