Sometimes you're good and ...

sometimes you're just lucky.

UTG, extremely loose aggressive, raised to $0.75. Folded to me in the BB, I held A♦K♦. I was tempted to raise and try to push him off the hand, but of course if he called and then I missed the flop it would make life difficult. So I called, hoping to catch a piece of the flop and then make him pay for it with the rope-a-dope.

The flop was just a bit better than I really wanted -- A♣K♠K♣. I checked, though I did consider a weak lead. He checked too. Turn, the 4♥. Now, I made the weak lead of $0.50 into the $1.60 pot. He called. River, the J♣. Little did I know that this was almost my gin card. I bet $1.50, he raised to $3, I reraised to $6 and he showed some semblance of sanity by only calling with Q♥T♥. A shame that the river completed the flush really, I don't think he was putting me on the boat.