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 sitting on a massive stack of 170 big blinds during the first day of a multi-day tournament. You are dealt A
8 and decide to raise it up from under the gun to 3,000 with blinds at 600-1,200 with a 200 ante.
A creative, yet aggressive player calls in the cutoff, as does the button and the small blind. The big blind, a solid player, decides to move all in on the short stack for his last 11,400.
With only 8,400 more to call and an additional 9,000 in potentially dead money on the table, you decide to isolate by raising to 20,000. Your plan backfires when the cutoff moves all in for his last 54,700.
The button and the small blind get out of the way and the action is back on you.
The Questions
Do you call or fold? What kind of hands could your opponent in the cutoff be holding? Do you place more of an importance with the math of the situation, or the value of your chips during this stage of the tournament? How often do you need to win this showdown to break even on a call? How could the additional 34,700 be better used later on in the tournament?
What Actually Happened
During day 1 of the WPT Grand Prix de Paris main event, Peter Jetten raised to 3,000 from under the gun and was called by Dominik Nitsche in the cutoff, Philipp Gruissem on the button and Salmn Behbehani in the small blind.
Marvin Rettenmaier then moved all in from the big blind for his last 11,400. Jetten tried to isolate by raising to 20,000, but Nitsche moved all in over the top for 54,700. Gruissem and Behbehani folded and Jetten felt priced in enough to make the call with his A 8.
Rettenmaier held K
9
and Nitsche was way ahead with his J J. The board ran out 10
8 6 9 4 and Nitsche more than doubled up. Rettenmaier was eliminated and Jetten was left with 150,000.
Though both players survived the day, neither were able to make the money, busting just a few spots before the bubble.
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.
