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 19 players remaining in a massive live tournament. You are already in the money and are facing a two buy-in pay jump. With 5,110,000 in chips and blinds of 30,000-60,000 with a 10,000 ante, you have 85 big blinds and are among the top five stacks in the room.
A solid player with 6,370,000 raises from early position to 150,000 and you look down at K
K
in the cutoff. You three bet to 375,000 and your opponent calls. The flop comes down 10 9 7 and your opponent leads out for 325,000.
You call and the turn is the A giving you the nut flush. Your opponent checks and you bet 500,000. Your opponent opts to call and the river is the 9
.
Your opponent checks once again and you fire in a bet of 700,000. Your opponent then check-raises to 2,500,000. You have 3,200,000 remaining in your stack.
The Questions
Do you call, raise or fold? What hands is your opponent check-raising for value that you can beat? What kind of hands fall into his bluffing range? Is there any reason to reraise all in? Given your remaining stack size, can you possibly fold?
What Actually Happened
At the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open main event and facing a check-raise to 2.5 million on a board reading 10 9 7 A 9, Amir Lehavot opted to call with his K K.
His opponent, Blair Hinkle, showed down 9
9 for quads and took the massive pot along with the chip lead. Lehavot eventually busted in 16th place, earning $69,810. Hinkle went on to make the official final table as the chip leader.
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.
