Hero flopped the nut flush draw, hit the nut flush on the turn, and extracted value on the river. The line was solidly +EV throughout; the main missed opportunity was a larger turn raise to build the pot with the absolute nuts.
Street-by-Street Analysis
Preflop (8/10)
A♣Q♣ suited is a premium open from UTG. Raising to $30 (5x the straddle) is a fine size in a multiway pot with two limpers already in.
Flop (7/10)
With a flush draw (9 outs) and no made hand, the $60 c-bet into $96 is standard. Facing SB's check-raise to $145, calling is correct—you have the nut flush draw with excellent implied odds at these stack depths. Good discipline not to re-raise and bloat the pot without a made hand.
Turn (5/10)
You hit the nut flush (A-high flush, holding the A♣ blocker). SB leads $60 into $446—a tiny, weak bet. Your raise to $165 is far too small at 0.3x pot. With the stone nuts, 1000 BB effective stacks, and a villain who just check-raised the flop and is now leading, you should raise to at least $250–$300 to build a pot that sets up a large river bet. You left significant value on the table with this min-raise sizing.
River (7/10)
SB checks, you bet $500 into $776 (0.6x pot). You hold the absolute nuts—zero combos beat you. Against SB's revealed K♥7♠ (top two pair), this gets called, which is great. However, given the deep stacks and that SB has shown strength throughout, a larger bet ($600–$700) would have extracted more from two pair and sets. The 0.6x sizing is reasonable but conservative with the nuts.
Hindsight: SB held K♥7♠ for top two pair—a hand that was never folding to a bigger river bet. A larger sizing would have won more.
