Give us your opinion in the comments section below for your chance at winning a six-month Card Player magazine digital subscription.
Ask any group of poker players how you played your hand and they’ll come up with dozens of different opinions. That’s just the nature of the game.
Each week, Card Player will select a hand from the high-stakes, big buy-in poker world, break it down and show that there’s more than one way to get the job done.
The Scenario
You are three-handed in a major tournament and have a slight chip lead with 5,550,000 and blinds of 60,000-120,000 with a 20,000 ante (46 big blinds). Your opponents are both aggressive. The short stack in the tournament has 3,725,000 (31 big blinds).
On the button, you look down at A
10 and raise to 250,000. The small blind, a player who started the hand with 5,330,000 (44 big blinds), three-bets to 670,000.
Having position, you decide to call and the flop comes K 10
8. Your opponent bets 620,000 and you make the call. The turn is the Q
and your opponent bets 1,310,000.
There is more than 5.3 million currently in the pot and your opponent has 2,710,000 behind his bet, with you having him slightly covered.
The Questions
Do you call, raise or fold? If calling, do you expect to get any additional value if a diamond or a jack hit the river? Is there any reason to fold, considering how strong of a draw you are holding? If raising, are you doing so for value, or as a bluff? What kinds of hands are in your opponent’s range? What non-diamond, non-ten, non-jack cards on the river will make you consider value betting if checked to?
What Actually Happened
After thinking it over for a few minutes at the 2013 World Poker Tour Championship, Chino Rheem elected to just call with his A 10 on a board reading K 10 8 Q.
The river was the 3 and his opponent, Jonathan Roy, moved all in for 2,710,000. Rheem immediately called with the nut flush and Roy could only shake his head as he revealed 8 8 for a flopped set.
Roy was eliminated in third place, earning $421,800. Rheem went on to win the tournament, defeating Erick Lindgren and earning his second WPT title and the $1,150,297 first-place prize.
What would you have done and why? Let us know in the comments section below and try not to be results oriented. The best answer will receive a six-month Card Player magazine digital subscription.
