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This was a hand that played out at a tournament I was in recently. With the blinds at 200/400 I raised 1,000 in chips from the button hoping to pick up the blinds. The small blind called and the flop came down (4,J,J).
I had (9,6) as I had only been trying to steal the blinds, and after thinking for a while, I checked. I was beginning to formulate a plot to reraise if my opponent bet out, when he asked how much I had left. "5,100" was the answer, and he thought for a while longer before betting that exact amount. Now I have to say that this is such an obvious bluff. He had more chips in front of him than I did, I had been aggressive with my play recently, and quite frankly I think he just wanted to put me in my place. If only I had an Ace high I would have called, and I announced this to the table too. I know with my recent aggression, the last thing in the world he would do if he had a Jack, or pocket fours, would be to put me all in, and I can’t imagine him calling the raise preflop with a hand containing a single four. If he’d hit the flop hard, he would check it to see if I led out with a raise, and if I checked too, I had a chance to catch a two pair and get myself in trouble. Regardless of all this, and the fact that I knew he was bluffing, I had no choice but to fold.
I would have bet my whole tournament life on an ace high and called if I had it, and after I had said that and folded, he slid his cards over to show me his (Q,6) for queen high.
My first thought was, what was he doing calling 1,000 preflop with that, but if his plan was to outplay me on the flop, or if he was certain I was blind stealing and felt he was ahead, then fair play to him.
Although I never had the chance to make a great call with an Ace high, I know I would have done because my read of his hand was so clearly correct, and if you ever find yourself in a similar position I would advise you also to trust your reads always.