Hand of the Week - Rockets Come Crashing Down?

This week has our hero, Mike, is playing a .25/.50 pot limit holdem cash game when he is dealt Rockets (Ah and As) in the BB. He has had great success thus far and is up $160 on the day. Three limpers reach him preflop so he rides his streak and bumps it up pot ($3.25) - all the limpers call giving us a pot of $13.25.

The flop brings us the Js, Jc and Kd. Mike leads out with $7.50. He gets only one caller (a tight player) who started the hand with $51.75 in his stack. The pot now contains $28.25.

The turn is the Td. Mike leads out again - this time with a bet of $15.50. The villain raises all-in with his last $41 - making the pot $84.75 and requiring us to put in $25.50 more if we wish to see the river.

What do we do? Call and win? Call and watch our Rockets come crashing down? Pre-emptively self-destruct our Get Mark and Phil's commentary and the final answer in the comments section!! Or, listen to the "2009 Spring Session Week 7" podcast for the full discussion.

Hand of the Week - Greg's Dilemma

In a twist to the HOTW - Mike has guest Greg "Nice Life" Durand on as they discuss a $2 heads up SNG they played.

It's early in the tourney (about 2nd hand - blinds at 10/20 and 1500 in starting chips) when Greg gets 9c 9h with Mike on the button. Greg's dilemma is that he's been losing way too many of these decent starting hands when out of position and he's wondering what to do differently. Here, Mike leads out with a bet of 60 which Greg smooth calls.

The flop comes 4h, 6h and Th. Greg decides to check raise and Mike complies by betting 60 behind Greg's check. New Life raises to 220. Mike calls.

The turn is 2h. Both players check - with Greg commenting that he only has a the 9h so a J/Q/K or Ah have him dead.

The river is the 4s. Greg decides to make one more stab and bets 220 into the 560 pot. Mike takes about as much time as he can (including his time bank) and raises to 460. New Life considers his options and folds.

Was this the right play? Was the hand played correctly? Get Mark and Phil's commentary and the final answer in the comments section!!

Hand of the Week - Fire the Third Bullet???

The Hand of the Week is sponsored by Mike Behr Photography . For a full audio analysis listen to the 2009 Spring Session, Week 4 podcast.

Our hero is in a 45-player, $10 + $1 FullTilt Sit-n-go. It's early in the tourney with blinds at 10/20 (starting stacks of 1500). The table is currently 8-handed as we've lost a player and our hero sits at 3170 in chips

We're under-the-gun (UTG) with pocket As - Ah/Ac. We make a standard raise to 60 and only the button calls.

The flop is 9d/Kd/6d. The SB checks. We're first to act and bet 60 into the pot of 150. The button raises to 180 and we smooth call it.

The turn is 5d (the fourth diamond). With the pot now at 510 we lead out with 120. The button calls.

The river brings a 3 and a flush on the board. Our question here is what to do? Fire the third bullet? Check/Raise? Check/Call?

Get Mark and Phil's commentary and the final answer in the comments section!!

The Blind Me Down "Hand of the Week" - A Matrix Mess

So I left you last week with an Omaha H/L hand (see previous hand of
the week blog entry for details). Our decision was to fold and be
left the short stack, call and hope to hit or move all in and pray
everything goes our way. Being that we were in the money already, I
was playing to make it to the final table. I decided to push all my
chips in and hope to scoop a pot that would have put us to above
average chip status. So all 5220 went in when it came around to me
and this forced out the UTG who initially raised it to 1000 to start
out this round. Seat 4 obviously called and the river was a Jc. My
hands shot up and as I almost screamed with joy all the chips went in
his direction. I looked over and noticed 2 kings in his hand. The
second 2 on the turn gave him a full house, kings full of deuces. He
hit his set on the flop and never looked back. After thinking about
the hand for a while afterwards I decided that I was blinded by my
own hands draws and didn't have enough time to think about all the
different possibilities. In a live game with plenty of time to think
I may have laid this down when the second 2 came on the board. At the
end of the day, it really comes down to the fact that Omaha sucks!

This weeks hand of the week comes from a $10 Matrix game on Full
Tilt. Yes its true, I did declare 2 podcasts ago that I would never
play these again, but now I'm hooked. It's never a boring minute in
these games and I've come to love the fast paced action they provide.
So here's the setup. Our hero has made it to round 8, the 80/160
round and is still playing in all 4 matrix events. There are only 4
players left in this match which means we are sitting on the money
bubble. Everyones favorite spot. I'm sitting in seat 1, the small
blind, and look down at 7c 7s. Seat 7 (7095 chips) folds, Seat 9
(1285 chips) folds and it comes around to us. Our hero (2540 in
chips) decides to smooth call with his pocket 7's and hopefully see a
cheap flop. (Listen to the podcast and you should be hearing Mark
yell at our hero for doing something he wouldn't have done.) The BB
(2580 in chips) checks and the flop comes 3s 5s 4s. It doesn't get
too much more interesting than that. I decide to bet 160 into the pot
of 320 to see where we are at. The BB hesitates for a few seconds and
puts in a raise to 640. Our hero takes a moment and calls the 480
more. At this point we have 1740 left and the BB has 1800. The pot is
now 1600. The turn is the Kd. I decide to check and the big blind
bets out 800. We are left with a big decision here. What do you think
the BB has and what do you think we should do? We have a middle pair
to the board, a flush draw and a straight flush draw. And remember,
all the while this is happening, we are still in 3 other games
grabbing for our attention.

Check out this weeks podcast which can be found here on the blog or
on iTunes under CPL poker podcast to see what Mark and Phil decide to
do with this Matrix mess.

-Blind Me Down

The Blind Me Down "Hand of the Week" - Omaha H/L

Another week has gone by and that means the answer to last weeks hand
and a brand new hand to think about. To recap please read the
previous hand of the week. We were faced with a min. raise from late
position and we called with our trip 4's in hopes that we could beat
at least the late position player. Sadly we couldn't. The cut off
took down the side pot with 7s 9s and the small blind won the main
pot with Ks 6s. Beat by 2 flushes on the river. Rivered again as my
dad would say.

Now, onto this weeks hand. We are going to mix things up a bit this
time with an Omaha H/L hand. I'm going to try and throw a non hold em
hand in every now and then for those that prefer other games. This
hand comes from a $24+2 $4000 guarantee HORSE tournament on Full
Tilt. Typically this tournament will get between 165-200 entries and
pays out to 24. We have made it into the money out of the 167 that
were signed up and the blinds are 1000/2000. We've been in the money
for about 10 minutes of play now and are down to 18 players. Our hero
is in the small blind and posts 500. We are dealt Ah Ac 4d 10c. Under
the gone (big stack at table 22,128) calls the 1000 as does seat 4
(just below average stack 13,454). It folds around to us and we have
7,220 left. Omaha is not our strongest game here and we have a short
stack, but not the shortest at the table. We decide to just call. Big
blind checks and the hand is underway with a pot of 4000 to start.
The flop comes 8c kh 2c. I'm pretty happy about this flop but
concerned about a better low at the table so I just check hoping to
check call this down and hit my nut flush. The big stack under the
gun bets a 1000 and everyone but the big blind calls. Pot is now
7000. Turn is the 2d. This card likely hurt a low draw for someone as
well as us so we check. The big stack bets 2000, seat 4 raises to
4000 and we are left with our decision. We have 5220 left and would
put us on the short stack for the tournament. We have a low draw with
the A 4 and a nut flush draw with the 2 clubs on the board. Its
possible to hit a high club and scoop the pot, hit a low non club and
take the low or hit an ace for a full house and take the high and
possible scoop as well if no one hits the low. Do we shove our chips
in now or wait for a better hand?

Listen to the podcast for our resident Omaha expert Karaoke Phil
describe what he would do and how I probably screwed this hand up
completely from the very start. Wait, that's Mark that will tell you
I screwed it up from the very start as he would NEVER get him self
into these type of situations. Anyway, until next time, enjoy all the
games poker has to offer. Even if you're bad at them.

-Blind Me Down

CPL Poker Blog Site Traffic

Okay, the first month of Google Analytics is in and here are some highlights (this is basically site traffic for those who aren't familiar with "Analytics").

We had 377 visits from 107 unique visitors. This came from 11 countries and 59 cities. Here's the map of the locations our visits came from to us:

As you can see we're pretty heavy on Minnesota, but we're trying to expand and grow. Prelimary numbers from month two seem to bear this out. Our top 5 cities visiting us are Minneapolis, St. Paul, Hopkins, Circle Pines and Hennepin County (all here in the Twin Cities).

As for keyword searches the two card rooms we talk about the most (Canterbury Park and Running Aces) lead the way. Searches for Canterbury Park (including their Fall Poker Classic) yielded us 10 visits. Running Aces variants brought in 8. Our Home Poker League resources (which we added well into the month) accounted for 7 visits, with folks looking for various poker definitions brought in 4 more. Finally, the now resurrected Hand of the Week had 2 web searched hits.

Ahh, fun with numbers.

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

The Resurrection of "The Hand of the Week"

It's back ladies and gents. The Hand of the Week will make its weekly
comeback today and a new one posted every week from here on out.
Things got busy with work and poker took a slight back seat such as
it did for Phil with his masters degree. Things are coming together
now and I should have no problem posting these for quite some time
again.

This weeks hand asks the question, should you get away from a big
hand when the board gets scary?

It's in the early stages of a 9 player sit n go. We've lost a couple
of players and the chip stacks are somewhat evened out with a couple
of people with minor leads leaving some players with slightly less
then average stacks. Our hero sits in the small blind with Kc Kd and
a chip stack of 2640. It folds around to us leaving just our hero and
the big blind. We raise to 180 with the blinds at 30/60. A standard
3x raise trying to show that we have something but we don't exactly
want the big blind to go away. We do want to make some money on this
hand. He calls and we see a flop of Ac Kh Qs. The pot sits at 360
with our big blind on a stack of 3320. Our hero bets out 300 here.
Around 80% of the pot. The big blind insta-calls. The river brings
out the Jh. My thought process here is that we need to bet something
to see where we are at. If he's scared of the straight he'll fold. If
he has 2 pair he might try to make a move over the top of me. So I
bet out 500 into a pot of 960. Just over half the pot should be
enough to see where we are but not pot committing us if we get
spooked. The big blind instantly pushes all in and we are faced with
the decision. Does he have us beat here? Would he instantly push with
a straight or would he want to string us along for more chips? If he
has 2 pair and wants to end this that would be one way of doing it.
Or is this just a bluff and he's bullying us around on a scary board
because we raised his big blind. We have 1840 left and a double up
here would put us in nice shape for the rest of the tourny but a
wrong move puts us out of the tournament. Should we have done
anything with this flop and turn?

Tune in next week for the conclusion of this hand and the start of a
whole new set of issues. And remember, if you don't play you might
just get blinded into something nice.

Tag - you're it

Too improve future "searchability" we've added labels (and will use them more) to many posts. That way - if you want to review, say, all of the Hands of the Week you don't need to wade through every post to find them. You can use the search function at the top of the page or if you see a label (tag) after a post and want to see more related items - just click the label. Enjoy!

The Blind Me Down "Hand of the Week" - Hand 6 by Mike Behr

Hello everyone, it was an exciting hand last week and here are the
results. For a refresher of the entire hand please read the last hand
of the week post. After sitting in "no lobster land" for about a
minute thinking about what to do I flashed on a chapter I read from
Sklansky's book "Theory and Practice". His classifications of players
put me in the range of being weak tight. Meaning I look at a
situation and immediately think of all the hands that have me beat
and almost assume it must be one of those. Maybe a phobia I picked up
playing online poker. Something I've been working hard to overcome.
Anyway, after thinking about it and working it out in my head the
way Sklansky suggests I came to the conclusion that the odds of him
having a better hand then me were worse then me having a better hand
then him. If he was on a draw then he made a mathematical mistake by
moving all in. This game is all about capitalizing on those type of
mistakes whether or not they fall in your favor or not.
Mathematically you will come out ahead in the end. So I made the
call. Theoretically its what I wanted anyhow. All his chips in the
middle. I just went about it in an unorthodox manner. He flips over
Kd Jd and the river came an Ace. I end up with Aces up and he ends up
pulling out his wallet for another hundred dollar bill. Which he
eventually lost and then did it again to lose another. A very nice
pot and a wonderful start to a no limit relationship for me. Can't
wait for the next time.

Now onto this weeks hand of the week. This hand took place about an
hour ago and I'm going to title it "To collude or not to collude." It
takes place at a $5 90 player multi table sit and go. I saw Greg
Durand signed up for this game and decided to hop in hoping we could
make it to the final table together and represent the CPL. But the
odds were against us as we were seated at the same table right away.
We are almost 20 minutes into this game and the blinds are at 20/40.
Greg is sitting in middle position 4 off the button and I am sitting
on the button. I have 3140 in chips and Greg has 2290. The person to
Gregs right calls the 40 and greg immediately raises it to 160
(already I'm skeptical). I look down at As Kh. I think for a few
seconds and decide that I can't fold this on the button even if Greg
is the one raising it up. So I just call. The small blind calls, the
big blind folds and the original limper to his right folds. This puts
the pot at 560. The flop comes Qs 9c Kc. First player checks and Greg
bets out 560. I think about it for 10 seconds and call. The other two
players fold and we are now heads up. This puts the pot at 1680 with
Greg having 1570 left. The turn gives us the Ks. Greg checks. My
question is now. Given the situation of being ahead at the moment. Do
I bet out here or do I "collude" with Greg and check it down. With 2
flush draws and a straight draw on the board I risk losing the hand
by giving him a free card. But if I bet and he calls on either a draw
or a worse hand I risk taking him out of the tourny. Normally I would
have NOOOO problem with that. But this being online and wanting us to
both do well I didn't want to take him out. So. What do you do here?
Remember, he is my father and law and there could be bad memories of
this that float to the surface on birthdays and christmas. Tune in
next week to see what happens, who won, and if I'll ever see another
gift from the Durands or vice versa.

The Blind Me Down "Hand of the Week" - Hand 5 by Mike Behr

I'm back this week after taking a week off from the hand of the week
while I did some "real work" down in sunny Florida. I managed to
leave some time open to do some live poker playing though which is
where this weeks hand will be coming from. But first we must deal
with what happened with our last hand. For a refresher please take a
look at the previous "hand of the week" posting. With the villain
throwing out a check raise on the turn and then leading out on the
river we had to put him on something somewhat good. At the very least
he had top pair I would think. And I have to side with Phil on this
one. A good way to slow me down and really make me think is to play a
hand exactly the way our villain did. It would appear as though he
probably has us beat but I can't see us laying this down for the size
bet that he makes here and the right move I think would be to just
call. Our hero has two pair Q's and 10's and the villain was slow
playing A J suited from the small blind. Our check on the flop gave
him a chance to catch up on the turn and make his straight and it was
all over for us on the river. Way to go Mark for laying this down
although I don't think it was the right move. Too many chips in the
pot and we need to pay him off in this situation, especially with the
chip stack that we have.

And now on to this weeks "Hand of the Week". We are sitting at a 9
player table of a 1/2 no limit game. My very first time at a no limit
cash game and I was very nervous. It was a $100 min/max table so you
could only buy in for that amount. Although you could sit there all
day and accumulate chips without removing them so some players were
big stacked by the time I got there. We've been sitting for about an
hour and played a total of 3 hands very carefully putting us $18 up
before this hand starts. We are in the small blind and the UTG puts
in a small raise of $6. Seat 4 and 6 join in the fun and it folds
around to the button who puts in a raise to $16. The button in this
case over the last hour has been playing aggressively. He does a lot
of raising and has talked my ear off about his home in Vegas and all
the playing he does at the Belagio.I have also inadvertently seen his
hole cards on occasion while I'm not in a hand before he folds his
hands and noticed some semi-bluffs that he has made. We look down at
Ac Jc. I think about it for about 15 seconds and just call. Our UTG
player calls and the other 2 fold. The pot is now $62. Already a
little on the big side and I can smell trouble brewing as things can
get a little out of hand pretty fast at this table. The flop come 2h
7h Js. Not bad but a little scary as we really only have top pair
here. I decide to lead out with a bet of $25. The UTG folds and the
button calls. The pot is now $112 and we have $77 left. The turn is
the 8d. I decide to check in the hope to check raise him out of this
pot or to see if we can see the next card for free as I'm a little
worried about the heart flush and this guy has been known to chase a
bit. Well he decides to move all in for his remaining $58. We don't
have anything better then top pair and this isn't a tournament so we
are looking at almost all of our buy-in being spent on this one hand
with a pair of jacks. With so much committed and such a large pot do
we really want to let this go. So what do we do with our hard earned
money here?

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.

The Blind Me Down "Hand of the Week" - Hand 3 by Mike Behr

First we will start off again by answering last weeks dillema. If you need a refresher, please scroll down and read through the hand before going any further. This was a seemingly great hand for our hero Rock Lobster. We had a great draw, we hit our ace with a decent kicker and still had an out if we were beat on the turn. But instead we had a perfect storm brewing from the beginning. We have to give props to the Villian here whom played this hand perfectly. (that may or may not be the correct use of the word "whom" there. I so rarely get a chance to use it.) There are any number of hands that he could have here at the end and his bet of 1500 is such that it begs to be called. So if he was trying to bluff our hero off the hand, he has to be worried that it will get called. Unless, he caught his flush too and doesn't figure us for the nut flush. We have committed too much to the pot at this point to not call 1500 at the end when we have what could be good enough to win here. True, the board looks scary but can't let this one go. We will still have 2450 left after the call and for me that's good enough to come back with. Unlike last weeks hand, our tournament will not be at stake by paying this guy off if he does have a full house. So, we put in a lot of thought and run through our timebank and finally put the chips in the pot. He flips over pocket nines and takes it down with a full house. A very well played hand to the end for the villian who was ahead the entire time.

Now onto our hand of the week for week 3:

We are sitting in an 18 player 20 dollar sit and go and the blinds are at 150/300 with 5 people left in the game. For those unfamiliar with this game on full tilt this would be known as the money bubble. A dangerous place to be in any tournament especially when you have less then the average chip stack. We have 3950 in chips and need to pick up some ground in this tournament. There is one person with less chips then us at 1710 sitting on the button and has been folding his way into the money for the last 20 minutes. Just over 10 times the big blind we have too much to expect a call from a pre-flop all in and too little to be messing around with too many non-premium hands. Our hero Rock Lobster is under the gun and picks up 2 red aces. Nice. Getty as a 10 year old in a candy store we start dreaming of all the things we could do with the chips we are going to rake in on this hand. Not wanting to scare anyone away, because we do need at least one caller here, we raise to 1050. It folds around to our villian in this hand who is sitting in the big blind with 7320 in chips. The flop comes As 10s 2s. Our hero crys out "why me, why me". Not the flop we were hoping for here even though we have a set. We could either go forth cautiously, not wanting to get knocked out on the bubble or move all in here hoping the chip leader isn't holding at least one spade. In a situation like this I like to act as if I may or may not have hit something and proceed cautiously. I think if we push all in here he's going to know we don't have a spade and is going to call even on a draw hoping to hit his flush. Our villian checks and Rock bets out 1050 again. This is for two reasons. It still leaves us with enough chips to get away from the hand if another spade comes on the turn and it says to the big blind that I'm not betting enough to try and scare you away so I might have something here. Almost as if we are trying to draw him in. He calls and the pot is now 4350. If he's on a flush draw we just gave him 3 to 1 to call to catch his flush which is exactly the odds he needed to call in that situation with two cards to come. The turn is a Jc. Ouch! Now there is a straight and a flush on the board. Our villian now bets out 2000. Enough to put us all in. The fourth spade didn't come but the board just got even more dangerous. Are we good enough to get away from this hand and survive being knocked out on the bubble or do we roll the dice in this treachorous terrain and see if we have the best of it doubling up through the chip leader. If we fold we will still have 1850 in chips and doubling up gets us back to where we were. Do we really want to play for an hour and a half and walk away with nothing because of the endless allure of our two red aces? Remember, there is good money to be made here if we can make it to the cash. What do we do?

--
CPL Director Mark Cardenas
and
CPL Co-Director Phil Fuehrer

Find the Podcast on ITunes: CPLDirectors Podcast

The Blind Me Down "Hand of the Week" - Hand 2 by Mike Behr

The inaugural post of the "Hand of the Week" went fairly well. We had
a somewhat diverse group of thinkers weigh in on the hand and now you
get to hear the results. The villain in seat five had re-raised our
hero, Rock Lobster, on the turn. Rock took up his entire time bank thinking
this through and finally decided to fold. Rock thought "I'm behind. I'm
putting my tournament life on the line for the miracle card on the river.
That's just not how I rock-n-roll." The villain decided to show Rock his
hand at the end and it was A Q. He hit top two pair on the turn and
typed in that he was worried about Rock hitting the flush on the river
- pinching the pot away from him. Very smart on his part and I think
very smart on Rock's part. Sorry to Greg and Mark who would have
had the "nuts" to call in that spot and probably lose the rest of their chips.

And now on to this week's "Hand of the Week"

The blinds are 100/200 and our hero, Rock Lobster is sitting in middle position. We
start out the hand with 6520 in chips. We are the chip leader at the
table and seem to have control at the moment. The cards are dealt and
we look down at A of clubs and Q of clubs.Seats 1,2,3 fold. Rock bets out
600. Seats 5, 6 and the button fold and just the small blind calls.
The small blind has been somewhat choosey of his hands so far and is
sitting on a stack of 4850. Pot is now 1400. Flop comes 4c 9c Jh. A
pretty good flop for Rock. He didn't hit a pair but he has the nut
flush draw and two cards to come. Villian checks. Rock makes a continuation bet of 800 in
an attempt to sweeten the pot in case he hits and if he takes it down
at this point with ace high then Rock is very happy as well. The small
blind calls. Pot is now 3000. The Turn comes the Ah. Villian checks again. Rock bets out 1200,
less than half the pot, hoping for a call. Rock has a great hand at
this point with a nice draw. Villian again, just calls. The pot is now
5400 and we have spent 2600 each on this hand. The river comes the
Jc. Villian leads out with a bet of 1500. We just made the nut flush. What do we think Villian
has and what is our next move?

Post your responses and check back next week for the results.

-Blind Me Down

The Blind Me Down "Hand of the Week" - week 1

So Here's how this will go. I will post a "Hand of the Week" once a
week on Saturday and Sunday. Then during the week I would like people
to post as to what they would do in that situation. At the end of the
week I will then post what happened in the hand and we can see who
would have made the smarter play. Hopefully we can learn from this
and become better poker players. So here we go. Week 1!

The blinds are 40/80 in a $10 multi table tournament with over 400
people. I have 4250 in chips and it is the fifth level of play.
Things have been going well for the first hour. The hand gets dealt
and I look down at A K offsuit. Your in early position at a full
table 2 off the blinds. Our hero (me) raises it to 3x (240) and gets
3 callers. Seats 5, 6 and the big blind call. The board comes 10c 3s
As. Pot is now 760. I bet out 600 into a pot of 1000 and get called
by the person in seat 5 (the chip leader at the table with over 6000
in his stack). All others fold and the pot is now 2200. The turn
comes the Qs. I lead out again with a bet of 850. My goal here is to
make it look like a value bet showing him that I have something and
begging for a call. Player 5 comes over the top with a bet of 1850.
What do you do and more importantly what do you think he has?

Post your responses and check back next week for the river and results.

-Blind Me Down