Poker Hand Of The Week: 1/9/14

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

There are 18 players remaining at three tables in a major, live tournament. Only the final eight players will make the money.

With a stack of 552,000, you are near the bottom of the leaderboard, though you still have over 34 big blinds with the blinds at 8,000-16,000 with a 2,000 ante.

The action folds around to you in the small blind and you look down at 99. You raise to 45,000 and your opponent, a solid and creative player with 664,000, makes the call from the big blind.

The flop comes down 655 and you make a continuation bet of 55,000. Your opponent calls and the turn is the 7. You check and your opponent bets 100,000. You have 450,000 remaining in your stack.

The Questions

Do you call, raise or fold? If calling, are you drawing or do you believe you currently have the best hand? What is your plan for the various possible river cards? If raising, how much? What type of hand could your opponent be holding in this situation?

What Actually Happened

Facing a bet of 100,000 on a board reading 6557, Martin Finger opted to move all in for his last 450,000 against Mike McDonald.

McDonald snap called, tabling J5 for trips. Finger could still win with any 9, 8 or non-jack heart. The river was the K, however and Finger was eliminated.

McDonald went onto just squeak into the money of the 2013 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $100,000 Super High Roller, banking $217,320 for his eighth-place finish.

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.