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 and on the short stack for a major tournament title. The blinds are at 150,000-300,000 with a 50,000 ante, and with only 5.1 million in chips, you are sitting on 17 big blinds.
The chip leader, holding 55 big blinds, opts to fold on the button. The second biggest stack, sitting with 13.1 million, or 43 big blinds, min-raises on the button to 600,000 and you make the call from the big blind with 6
6
.
The flop comes down Q
Q
7 and your opponent puts you all in for your last 15 big blinds. If you call and win, you’ll have 10.25 million and will be sitting comfortably in second place.
The Questions
Do you call or fold? How much does your stack size and the mounting blinds and antes factor into your decision? Why would you just call preflop with a hand as strong as pocket sixes? Were you planning on moving all in over the top of any continuation bet? How does the flop texture change your decision? Are you comfortable calling all in and possibly drawing dead to two outs?
What Actually Happened
Three-handed at the inaugural WPT stop in Montreal, American pro Jeff Gross snap-called all in with his pocket sixes on a flop of Q Q 7 and his opponent, Canadian Pascal Lefrancois, could only show down pocket threes.
The turn and river came 5 7 and both player’s pocket pairs were counterfeited. Gross won the hand, however, with his six high.
Ultimately, the double up wasn’t enough and Gross was eliminated in third place, good for $319,238. Lefrancois finished runner-up, banking $473,572. The winner was Canadian Jonathan Roy, who picked up his first WPT title and the top prize of $784,101.
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.
