Poker Hand Discussion -- What Would You Do With Jacks?Sam 'Siola' Iola Discusses Winning the Sunday Million |
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In this weekly series, CardPlayer.com and the Card Player Pro poker video training site (powered by PokerSavvy Plus) are giving you a free, full-length training video. In each article, we will highlight a particularly interesting hand from that video that features unconventional play, and we will ask for your opinions on the hand.
Tell us what you think and how you’d play this week’s hand in the comments below.
Video Title: Winning the Sunday Million
Coach: Sam “Siola” Iola
Video Description
In this week’s free, full-length poker strategy video for Card Player Pro, poker professional Sam “Siola” Iola reviews his recent first-place finish in the PokerStars Sunday Million tournament for $185,000. Sam gives us hand-by-hand analysis of his play throughout the tournament and explains his strategy for the early, middle, and late stages of a big buy-in tournament. This video focuses on his middle-stage play, just after the money bubble has burst and all of the players have reached the money.
Discussion Point:
What to do with Jacks?
A highlight of the video comes at the 16:52 mark, when Sam reviews an interesting spot with a pair of jacks. With the blinds at 2,500-5,000 with a 500 ante, the table folded around to Sam, who min-raised with J
J
from the cutoff. With a strong hand, Sam chose a small raise to keep weaker hands in the pot and entice re-steals from the shorter-stacked players left to act. The table folded to the big blind, who called the additional 5,000. Sam had approximately 110,000, which his opponent covered. There are now 27,000 in the pot.
The flop came Q 9 5, giving Sam second pair to the board.
The big blind checked, and Sam checked behind with his jacks for pot control.
The turn brought the Q, and the big blind led out for 11,111 into a pot of 27,000.
With several flush draws and straight draws on the board, Sam figured his jacks were too strong to fold just yet, so he called.
The river brought the 9
, putting two pair on board. His opponent thought for a second and checked.
What do you think Sam should do with his two jacks? Should he just check and take a free showdown? Should he put in a small bet and try to get called by worse? Should he make a big bet as a bluff and try to get his opponent to fold something strong?
Watch now to see how Sam played his Jacks as part of this free, full-length training video.
Comments
brunell0407
5 months ago
just pointing out, in the description you mislabeled the second queen as diamond, and it should be a heart.
liudawg
5 months ago
yeah that makes a huge difference brunell
brunell0407
5 months ago
just saying.....
CardPlayerAdmin
5 months ago
Thank you for pointing that out burnell. It has been corrected in the story.
subzero616
5 months ago
Id go for a small value bet hoping to get called by A high. Its going to look like your hand may have been counterfeited by the 9. I doubt he checked a better hand on the river. Id think for a bit, then bet 1/2 pot and fold to shove. But he might not have an A all that often, depends on the player, maybe he calls really wide in BB trying to hit the flop... I think Id still go for some more value.
paulstar
5 months ago
You have to check!
This is a no-brainer.
If he had a pair under 9 (77 or the 5) then he has been counterfeit. He can only flat call with an ace. Chances are, he was either betting a flush draw, the Q, the 9, a pair under 9, ace high, 55, or air. for the coounterfiet FH (still good though). Three of those 7 holdings are winning (the flush draw may also be an ace high though) and only 3 of them can flat call a value bet (ace high, 9 or 55). Because he has CHIPS, he can bluff you out of your value bet (say you bet 20,000, he can risk a bluff-raise of 60k costing you most of your stack).
The chances of him having 55 are very slim, and the chances of him having a 9 are also slim because he would have to value bet the river with 9, so he can really only flat call with an ace.
Therefor, the value bet is too risky because you risk losing the pot to a checdk-raise.
Mathematically, you are already adding more than 50% to your stack (50K) to the 88K that you have left on the river, so it's not worth trying to get an extra 20k to 25k based on the math of his chances to flat call, against his chances to bluff-raise, against his chances to fold, against his chances to be already winning (such as flat calling with 55 or a 9 or even kk/aa - all very slim possibilities but must be added to the equation; remember flat calling with 9 is slim too because he must bet the river for value if he has the 9 and not just check call).
Forgot to note that he would haver to flat call with TT also, another slim chance holding though.
Even if you discount 55/kk/aa/9, there is about a 50%chance he will call with an ace or bluff-raise, though that percentage changes depending on the player, so a check is the right move.
This whole reply though is meaningless because you have to be at the table to know this players likelyhood of bluff raising. Has he been muscling to get those chips? Stealing blinds? a lot of check-raises? etc... or is he just waiting for prime hands and built his stack with cards only. Ane does this player care for his chips too much that he wouldn't even call with ace high?
That is the only way to properly determine whether value betting this player is the correct move or not. Therefor, all of our replies to stories like these are stupid.
I never understand why we should guess what happened or what is the correct move for either player for any stories like these since we are not their seeing how they play.
brunell0407
5 months ago
you can just watch the video, they show the hand. and not all players are purely math players ; )
Richenough
5 months ago
these replies are very funny ... but my favorite is "you can just watch the video, they show the hand. and not all players are purely math players" by burnell0407 -- ############### classic response -
-- NUFF SAID