Even though I more or less never do this, I will deconstruct what in my opinion is a very sick tournament poker hand. I will play it from both sides. Showing what the correct thinking process should be. For the record, hands like these, and this type of thinking is why I excel at poker. And it's not even really close.

Full Tilt Poker $25,000 KO Guarantee No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t1700/t3400 Blinds + t400 - 7 players The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com HTBJabroni64 (UTG+1): t224916 plzlemmewin (MP): t86874 tiltingtoomuch (CO): t89244 Hero (BTN): t163804 ttali (SB): t83832 GOTTASTOPCALLIN (BB): t66437 Bobby_Kimball (UTG): t97893 Pre Flop: Hero is BTN with K A 1 fold, HTBJabroni64 raises to t6800, 2 folds, Hero raises to t23000, 2 folds, HTBJabroni64 calls t16200 Flop: (t53900) 5 9 6 (2 players) HTBJabroni64 checks, Hero checks Turn: (t53900) 3 (2 players) HTBJabroni64 checks, Hero checks River: (t53900) A (2 players) HTBJabroni64 checks, Hero bets t22000, HTBJabroni64 raises to t201516 all in

Our hero here 3 bets the original raisers preflop raise. No issues there, pretty standard. The bad guy calls. Now from this point we can examine what both players are thinking. The original raiser was UTG, which indicates a strong hand, that being said, it's a 7 handed table. So the range you have to put him on is pretty wide. I'd say any paid 22+, aqs+. That is really it though. I think most people are folding any kings. As for the reraiser, I think the bad guy has to put him on AA-QQ, some times TT+, and AK. That is it.

The flop comes air, the bad guy checks, and our hero checks. The bad guy checking is pretty normal, our hero checking is AWFUL. How could you not c-bet here. By not c-betting you give away information about your hand. You are not protecting TT-JJ, so you can now rules those out. You can also rule out any smaller pair that didn't improve. So now the bad guy can assume that you have either a set, AA, or AK. As for the bad guy, we have learned nothing about his hand.

Moving to the turn:
The bad guy again checks. This gives away info about his hand. He now no longer has KK-TT. Other then that it's still pretty iffy. He could still be slowplaying a set of he could have AA and slow play it or AK AQ. When our hero checks the turn he has officially made his hand transparent. It's AK. Because rarely, will someone slow play set although that is still a somewhat small possibility, and rarely will someone slowplay a pair of Aces past the turn. So that leaves us with AK as the biggest clue to what he has.

On the river the ace comes. Our bad guy checks again. He has nothing. No one slow plays a set all the way to the river, and since our hero has checked the whole way down, why on earth would he bet AK now, what would he expect to be called by? He can't expect to get any value out of most hands except for AQ, plus betting puts him a spot to get bluffed, so the optimal play is to obviously bet here if you have a set hoping to get raised or called. Our bad guy doesn't, he checks, so he has nothing. Now even though I just explained why betting is awful, our hero does anyway. No dice. Our bad guy checkraises all in. Now, you snapp call with fist pump and get shipped chips.

DUCY?