Hi guys, in light of the start of Ninja Spade League: a
series of tournaments through which players earn points to win WSOP tournament
buy ins, I’ve decided to start writing more hand analyses and commentaries. I don’t have as many impressive tournament
results as some of my peers, as I have pretty strict bankroll management when
it comes to tourneys and haven’t taken shots at many bigger buy in events. However, I do believe that people respect my
game and my thoughts about it. Although
I play more cash games than tournaments, I’m a student of the game who loves
analyzing tough and tricky situations in poker hands. In this post I’ll walk you through a hand I
played in a poker tournament last month, and I would love to hear your
feedback!
Minnesota has the luxury of two great poker rooms where
games run around the clock and tournaments are hosted daily: Canterbury Park
and Running Aces. This hand is from the
Wednesday night tournament at Canterbury Park, a $235 buy in with re-entries
through the first 2 hours (4 – 30 minute levels).
Starting the hand with 11,700 chips at the 100-200 blind
level, I’m dealt AQcc in the cutoff.
It’s folded around to an older reg who has some strong tourney results,
much stronger than mine, in middle position, and he limps for 200 with 7500 to
start the hand. I raise to 600, the
button and both blinds fold, and the reg in MP calls 400 more.
Flop comes Qh8d2h, a great board for my AQcc. MP checks and I fired 500. MP calls.
The reason why I bet so small here is because (a) my hand is very strong
on this board, (b) if I bet bigger he might fold a one pair hand that has
little equity against me. In addition, I
don’t mind pot-controlling with my bet sizing in case the board gets scary.
Turns comes an As, giving me top two. However, this isn’t a great card for most of
his calling range on the flop. I doubt
that MP is floating me out of position with A high’s that aren’t A high flush
draws, and so the only two pair hands I’m probably getting value from are A8
and A2. However, if I flopped air or a
pair lower than queens, this is a great card to bluff him off a Q. Regardless, I proceeded to bet 1500 into a
pot of 2500, giving him a steep price to draw to a flush, but betting low
enough that he could shove all in and leave me some fold equity (obviously I’m
not folding top two here, but I want him to think I'm weak and want him out the pot). MP called my
bet leaving 4800 behind and we head to a river.
River comes a 10h, boom! Both the flush and two gutterball
straights get there on the river. I’m not
too concerned about MP hitting a gutshot without hearts, but he could feasibly
call the turn with a hand like 89hh, 87hh, KhJh, or AhXh. If he ships the river here for 4800 into
5500, I’m faced with a tough, polarized spot.
Fortunately he checked to me quite quickly, and gave off the impression
that the river was a bad card for his hand.
Thus checking was out of the question: I was convinced I had the best
hand.
Considering my line on this hand, betting between 2500-3500
would be pretty standard. However, if I
value bet the river there’s little chance MP calls me with a one pair hand, as
the board is pretty messy by the river.
If he has a QJ or KQ type hand, he might call a small bet like 1000-1500
on the river, but that looks fishy and I’m sure MP would catch on to that. After some deliberation I decided to go all
in for my remaining 9,100 (4800 effective as it was more than MP had). Much to my surprise, MP shrugged and tossed
in the rest of his chips. I tabled AQ
for top two and he flashed me A2dd for a lower two pair and got up from his
seat.
In this case I was fortunate enough to run into one of a few
hands that would pay me off on the river.
I’m guessing that MP thought I could be bluffing and the river card was
a good one for me to continue on. In
addition, he did have two pair and could beat a hand like Q10 or AK that has
some value. Do you think I took a good
line on this hand? Even though I did win
all my opponent’s chips on this hand, is going all in on this board the best
play on the river or do you prefer checking or betting much smaller? Thanks for reading and I look forward to
hearing your feedback
- Rob Brereton
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