An Ace call Phil Hellmuth would be proud of

I was dealt bullets in the Big Blind, so was rubbing my hands when the button made what looked an obvious steal by raising it up to $8.

With no one else in the hand, I just called - and then saw a worrying flop of KK9, rainbow.

Now I suspected my sneaky opponent had raised with nothing, but I also knew that he could also have some middle of the road hand like KJ, K10.

This looked more likely when I checked and he put in a suspiciously small bet of $12.
I called.

Turn was a 9.

There was no flush draw on the board, but a Full House was now staring straight at me.

Suddenly, my aces were looking weaker than an American beer.

I checked and the button put in a textbook half-pot size bet.

Now I really should have folded. Everything the player had done indicated that he had the winning hand.

But I'm always wary of a button raiser as most times they really are looking to steal.

I just couldn't shake this feeling so again I called, my thinking being that a raise would definitely bring an all-in - and potentially forcing me out of this hand.

The river was an inconsequential 6.

I checked again and this time my opponent put in a BIG bet of $70 dollars.

I thought for a long time about it.

My poker head told me that I was beat. But my instincts screamed that he was definitely bluffing and just wanted me to THINK that he wanted me to call, so that I'd fold.
I called.

He turned over a 7 and a 5 and I'd won a pot of more than $200.

So was this brilliant play or had my stubbornness/recklesness won me the hand? I'd like to think it was the former but suspect it had a little to do with the latter.

But, hey, we can't all be Phil Hellmuth. The poker God is a record bracelet winning champion for many reasons including his incredible reading ability. Watch and enjoy this recent amazing call against JC Tran.