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In a $1,000 buy-in poker tournament with blinds at 50-100 with 30,000 effective stacks, a good loose, aggressive kid raised to 300 from the hijack seat. I just called from the big blind with 10♠10♣.
While I would normally three-bet my best hands, calling is a perfectly acceptable option with my playable range against an aggressive player who is capable of putting me in difficult post-flop situations.
Many strong, but non-premium hands (such as 10-10 and A-J) play much better when called than three-bet when deep stacked from out of position because they usually do not flop the nuts after the flop. With hands that will frequently be marginal made hands, you want to limit your risk.
The flop came Q♣9♣2♣, giving me a bit better than middle pair with a marginal flush draw. I checked and my opponent bet 175 into the 650 pot.
Check-calling is the only play that makes sense. With your marginal made hands, you want to see a cheap showdown, at least until it becomes clear that your made hand is best. When your opponent bets, even when he bets small, it is easy to be behind.
Folding would be far too tight because even if I am behind top pair or a weak flush, I have outs to improve to a 10-high flush. Check-raising has no merit because my opponent will mostly call with top pair and better made hands as well as high equity draws.
Some players may think that my opponent’s tiny flop bet indicates a marginal made hand or a marginal draw. If that is accurate, you do not want that range to fold to a raise because most of it is drawing dead or nearly dead. That said, I do not make too many presumptions about my opponents’ strategies until I know a bit more about them.
I called. The turn was the 8♠. I checked, my opponent bet 600 into the 1,000 pot, and I called.
As on the flop, check-calling is the only play that has any merit. The turn card did not hurt my hand too much except that I now lose to J-10, Q-8, 9-8, and 8-8. If I was behind on the flop, I picked up a few outs to a straight. Again, with a marginal made hand, check-raising has no merit.
The river was the 3♦. I checked and my opponent bet 2,100 into the 2,200 pot.
When my opponent takes the line of “small bet, normal bet, large bet” he usually has a polarized range by the river. This means he likely has an over pair, two-pair, set, flush, or busted draw.
Notice that there are a bunch of potential busted draws, such as A-J, K-J, A-10, K-10, and flush draws. While some of the other draws improved to a pair, I would not put it past a strong loose, aggressive player to turn a hand like A♣2♥ or J♣8♥ into a bluff. This should lead me to hero call, at least until I have more information about my opponent’s tendencies.
I decided to call, thanks to my two 10s blocking some of the potential flushes and straights. My opponent showed a value bet with 8♥8♦, a set.
Notice that my flop check-call allowed him to improve to a set, but losing this pot is not too big of a deal as my opponent was drawing to exactly one out. When he fails to improve to a set, I will usually win one more bet while also minimizing my losses. Sometimes you are going to lose, and that is fine.
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Jonathan Little is a WSOP bracelet winner, two-time WPT winner, and the 2024 PokerGO Cup champion with nearly $9 million million in live tournament earnings, best-selling author of 15 educational poker books, and 2019 GPI Poker Personality of the Year. If you want to increase your poker skills and learn to crush the games, check out his training site at PokerCoaching.com/cardplayer.
Photo by PokerGO – Miguel Cortes