At the World Poker Tour's $15,000-buy-in Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic at Las Vegas' Bellagio in 2007, Erick Lindgren picked up pocket 9s under the gun. With blinds at $800-$1,600 plus a $200 ante, Lindgren, an aggressive pro known to chop at a lot of pots, raised to $4,500. "I was raising to thin the field and mix it up," said Lindgren, winner of two WPT titles. "I didn't want to always limp in under the gun."

Surprisingly, three players in late position called, as did Raymond Davis in the big blind. "When I got four callers," Lindgren said. "I wanted to flop a 9."

So, five players took a flop of 7-7-4. Davis checked. The action was on Lindgren.

"There's a good chance that my hand's good, but I had some short stacks behind me, and I thought there was a good chance one of them might shove," Lindgren said. "So, I checked."

The three players behind Lindgren also checked, so five players saw the turn come the 7 of spades. Lindgren hit a full house, but someone holding a 7 would have made quads.

Davis bet $6,000 into a pot worth more than $24,000. Lindgren called, as did the button after two other players folded.

"Now it looks like I have the best hand," said Lindgren, one of the pros from the Full Tilt Poker online site. "I think Raymond has a small pocket pair. He was in the blind, and just the way he was acting, I felt like if he had a 7, he would've tried to maximize it, tried to check-raise or lead out more. I think he was trying to protect his underpair and didn't bet out enough. When the guy on the button called, I had no idea what he had."

The river came the 10 of clubs, an overcard to Lindgren's pocket pair.

"You can't be scared because an overcard hits the board like that on the river, because it wouldn't have made any sense for someone to be holding it at that point," Lindgren said. "Why would anybody have a 10 in their hand at that point [and not have bet it earlier if it were a pair]? It doesn't fit the equation. If it doesn't make sense, then you need to maximize value and get a bet out there."

After Davis checked, Lindgren bet $11,000, a little more than one-fourth of the pot. The button folded. Davis called, flashing A-Q offsuit as he mucked after he saw Lindgren's 9s.

"Raymond made a bad call and was a little tilted," Lindgren said. "I think I got pretty good value on a middle-of-the-road hand."*

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