Sunday, February 24, 2008

The Blind Me Down "Hand of the Week" - Hand 4 by Mike Behr

So we left off last week with a difficult decision to make. Do we
call all in on the money bubble with top set on a dangerous board or
fold and try to make it into the cash. After much thought as usual I
decided that I couldn't lay this down. I felt as though I was being
pushed around in a spot that the chip leader knew would be tough for
me to call in and so I made the call. He rolls over 10d Jd. In this
case, almost the most powerful hand in poker. His play makes sense on
the turn as it may be what anyone would have done in his shoes. The
river was a 4 of clubs and we took down a monster pot to put us in
the chip lead and in great shape to make some real money. Pat
yourself on the back if you had the stones to call here. Not an easy
decision.

Now onto our hand of the week for week 4:

It's a $3 KO tournament that started with 938 players. We're down to
436 and the blinds are at 40/80 with 14 minutes to go until the first
break. Obviously a loose game as this type usually is. We have
carefully built our stack up to 7985 which is a little more then
twice the average at this point. Rock is sitting in the big blind
with a Qd 10c and it folds around to the button who just calls. The
small blind throws in an extra 40 for a call and we just check. The
flop comes Qh 7c 10s rainbow. Fantastic. We have top two. The small
blind checks, we check and the button checks. The turn is the Kc. The
small blind checks. We bet out 180 into a pot of 240 to see if
someone hit the king and because we don't need the board to get any
more dangerous before we put out a bet. The button folds and the
small blind raises to 360. We take a moment and then just call. The
river is the 5h. The small blind bets out 560 into a pot of 960. He
has 2540 left and we have 7545. What do we want to do here? At a
minimum we make the call. But the question is, what could he have and
should we push for more chips and try to get his entire stack in
there somehow and taking down yet another bounty.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

We'll discuss on the podcast, but I only call. Win the hand and I've increased my stack by 1080 (about 13.5% and my stack (over 9000) is now 2.8 times average) - something I'm always happy with doing. End up with villian all in and lose and I'm down about 45% of my stack (down to about 1.25 the average stack).

The check raise on the turn and the lead out on the river have me leery. It may be a bad read on his part (in this case perhaps just a pair of Ks but he thinks he's got your pair of Qs beat), but it could also be a better two pair (K/7??) or even J/9.

I call - take the win if I have it and minimize the loss if I'm beat.

Anonymous said...

I'm in complete agreement with Phil. You have a solid hand but not the nuts. The risk is not worth it.

His bet on the river is begging for a raise or call by you. I would have been more comfortable if he had gone all-in. That would have told me that he wasn't 100% confident in his hand and wanted no caller.

You are pot committed to call but that's all I would do at this point.

Johnny B Goode said...

So you when you first bet he perhaps thinks maybe you hit Ks. He reraises to see if you have the goods and you call. So now he knwos you have soemthing, but he's not sure. I would have rerasied right here to force him out of the pot. 2 pairs is good, but he could have Ks and hit two pairs or two pair with another card. His rather large bet is to try and sell you on a bigger hand then he has. If he new he had you beat, he would have bet a smaller amount to get you to call. He was trying to get you to fold. But I agree, just call. 2 pair is not an all in hand and is not worth risking a huge amount of your chips.

Johnny B Goode said...

Call.