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 heads-up for a major tournament title. With 19,750,000 and blinds of 150,000-300,000 with a 30,000 ante, you are currently sitting with the chip lead and a stack of nearly 66 big blinds. You have a reputation for being hyper aggressive, with the creativity to be holding any hand at any time. Your opponent, a non-poker pro yet talented amateur with good live tournament results, has 15,925,000, or 53 big blinds.
You look down at J
3 on the button and limp in. Your opponent raises to 900,000 and you call. The flop comes down A7
4, giving you a flush draw and your opponent bets 1,300,000.
You call and the turn is the 2
. Your opponent bets 2,600,000 and you call. The river is the J and your opponent checks. There is currently 9,700,000 in the pot.
The Questions
Do you bet or check behind? If betting, how much? Are you betting for value or as a bluff? Is there any way to make your opponent fold an ace in this spot? What are you representing? If betting for value, what range of hands do you expect to call with worse than your jack? If checking behind, what range of hands do you expect to see at showdown? If you hadn’t rivered second pair, would you still check behind?
What Actually Happened
Facing a decision at the 2013 WPT Borgata Poker Open on a board reading A742J, Vanessa Selbst elected to check behind with her J3.
Her opponent, Anthony Zinno, could only show Q6 for queen high. Selbst took the pot and a 2-1 chip lead in the tournament, but could not hold on for the victory.
Zinno rebounded and went on to win the tournament and the $825,099 first-place prize. Selbst finished runner-up, just short of the Triple Crown, banking $492,569.
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.
*Photo courtesy of the World Poker Tour
