Wednesday, October 15, 2008

The Blind Me Down "Hand of the Week" - It's back!

Well I'm back ladies and gents, or in the words of Jeff, Donkeys.
We've got an all new "Hand of the Week". For those of you who are not
familiar with this, I will post a scenario of a hand I played during
the week. Then leave the ending for you to contemplate. The next week
I will post the answer and hopefully there will be some DISCUSSION on
it. Play nice though, we don't need people poking giants in the
stomach telling them they shouldn't have played A 9 off suit on the
button with 1 player left before the points. Or something like that.
Sorry Bill, had to. Ok, so here we go.

Our hero is sitting in a 24+2 45 player sit n go on Full Tilt. We are
only 15 min. into the tournament and have 3200 in chips. It's a
fairly loose table so far and we have doubled up through some really
bad players. I'm sitting in the big blind and look down at 3d 4c. It
folds around to the 7th position who calls the 50, as does the cut
off, button and small blind. We are 5 handed and I check to see a
flop with a pot of 250. The board shows 4s 5d 4h rainbow. Not a bad
flop. The small blind checks and we decide to get tricky here and
just check to see what's going to happen with the others. My plan
here was to check raise and take it down or catch someone trying to
be the hero. Remember, we're the hero. So it checks all the way
around and my plan fails. The turn is the 2s. Pretty good card for
us. Gives me a set with an open ended straight draw. I decide to bet
150 into the pot of 250 and try to build it up so we can get some
chips. 7th position folds and the cut off calls. His chip stack was
3780 when the hand started. The button folds and the small blind who
started the hand with 745 chips calls. So now we are 3 handed going
to the river with a pot of 700. The last card is the Js. The small
blind thinks about this for about 10 to 15 seconds and pushes his
remaining 545 in the pot. I think about it for a couple of seconds
and call. The big stack in the cut off who has us covered min raises
it to 1090. After calling the all in from the small blind we have
2455. If we called the min raise we would have 1910 and if we pushed
he has us covered. What do we put him on and what do we do?

Now think long and hard, discuss the hand, and I'll be back next week
with the answer and a whole new pile of problems.

-Blind Me Down

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well look who’s back! It’s about time. Don’t you think before we start with a new hand of the week, we should at least discuss the results of the last hand of the week? I believe it was June 10th for the last hand of the week with a promise “Things are coming together now and I should have no problem posting these for quite some time again.”

As for this weeks hand, this is another one of those situations that could get you into a lot of trouble. During live play, I probably would have played the hand pretty much the same and then pushed on the river. Given the opportunity to study this for a few minutes however makes me rethink the possibilities.

I’m now putting the SB on pocket 5’s and the cutoff on pocket J’s. This makes our hero’s hand 3rd best! Fold your set and get out of the way.

Greg "Newlife" Durand

Anonymous said...

good to see more hand of the weak.

pot is not raise before flop so JJ is not here. other player could have anything like A4 or two spade. SB in desperate for chip and want to take the pot. even if u beat he can't hurt much. so good call to his bet. CO raise is big problem. He not bluffing as have to show his hand with the player all in. He also raise into empty side pot and want value from strong hand.

please be folding now.

Anonymous said...

Let me echo my pleasure at seeing the Hand of the Week back in action.

On to your hand (oh, and only post the results of the last hand if I was right, lol):

Loose table so far.

Plenty of limpers and SB is in for 25 - 25 more to call three limpers and only the BB to act - he could do it with anything.

I agree with h82fold that it's doubtful anyone has 9s or higher.

Checks all around on the flop. Whiffs or strong hands - you can't tell so we go to the turn. The board is now 2/4/4/5 (two spades). Check call from SB and call from CO now signal flush draws or better with a small possibility of over cards (though probably nothing above A/T.

The river brings an overcard and flush possibility. SB moves all-in after thinking quite a while. I put him on specifically 6/8 of spades. He checks the gut shot stratight on the flop as short stack hoping to hit fold and able to fold if he needs to. The turn gives him a double belly buster and 8 high flush draw, but that's all draws and a board showing 2/4/4/5 could've hit the BB. The river gives him the flush which he either really thinks about how much to bet or does the fake "think" before pushing all-in.

The CO limped, checked and smooth called the bet before min-raising. This all stinks. Why? His hand improved on the turn to a straight (slow play it to the BB's bet) which further improved to a nut flush on the river (min raise the poor BB to get more out of him) - he has A/3 of spades.

It's either push (to represent the boat) or fold since you're beat. A loose table you're likely to get called. It's early in the tournament, let the hand go and fight on with your 2455 (still a healthy 49 times the BB).

Review:
SB - 6/8 spades
CO - A/3 spades
Board 4/5/4/2/J (three spades)
FOLD