A♠Q♠ BB vs SB, river on K♠ T♥ 7♠ 6♣ 2♠, 70 bb
The spot
- You: BB
- Opponent: SB
- Your hand: A♠Q♠
- Board: K♠ T♥ 7♠ 6♣ 2♠
- Effective stack: 70 bb
- Pot: 14.5 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♠). Count the spades: board K♠ 7♠ 2♠ plus hero's A♠Q♠ make a five-card spade flush, and with the A♠ it is the nut flush — the effective nuts, no straight flush possible. Versus the SB's capped range IP, this is a pure value hand with no draws left, so the polar overbet is mandatory: it extracts maximum from worse flushes, two pair, and sets that cannot fold for one bet, and bluff‑catchers pay off at a high frequency.
Key idea
Always recount the suits on the river: three board spades plus two in your hand is a made flush, not ace-high. The nut flush versus a capped range is a maximum-size value bet, not a thin one.
Common mistake
Misreading the nut flush as ace-high and only making a thin 40% bet, drastically under-betting the effective nuts.