Originally Posted by Yeldud

That is rough.

Curious - why even play the hand, let alone raise pre-flop?

Originally Posted by LeFou

That all-in is a scorcher. 400 dollars into about $120 !! Is this the tail end of a streak? It doesn't usually pay to sit in NL with 300 BB, and >2 X anyone else's stack. Turn bet might've helped, but when that much money is moving around I'm damn near useless.

Originally Posted by koolmoe

BTW, I always thought it advantageous to be the biggest stack at the table. Am I wrong?

Originally Posted by dalecooper

Good example of hyper-aggressive play, which often inverts traditional tactics completely. He raises with what is pretty much garbage to represent a big pocket pair and try to steal the weak calls and raise before him. When that doesn't pan out he raises big on the flop continuing to rep a premium hand (trip aces, or TPTK) while also disguising the draw he picked up. Then somewhat ironically he checks when he finally makes a hand - indulging a little bit of slowplay (potentially dangerous if another spade were to come out). It's a good tactic to make more money on the hand, assuming your opponent didn't make a higher flush (which most of the time they would not have). My only criticism of the play here is that betting any amount on the turn might have given you an opportunity to get away from the hand - not that you probably would have. But a bet there would very likely trigger a raise from the other flush, and you can consider your options.

As far as the thread's original question - if there's any way to detect the higher flush - I'd say not really. In hindsight you can see why he made all the moves he did (although calling your raises pre-flop and post-flop is pretty weak... unless he has a read on you that you bluff a lot, in which case he's playing it correctly).