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
After winning five consecutive matches, you are now in the finals of a 64-player heads-up tournament, playing in the first game of a best of three match. Your opponent, though known to be a bit reckless at times, is more focused than usual.
With a slight lead of 850,000 to 750,000 and the blinds at 8,000-16,000, you look down at pocket queens in the big blind. Your opponent min-raises on the button to 32,000 and you three-bet to 92,000.
He calls and the flop comes down J
8 6
. You continue with a bet of 90,000 and your opponent calls. The turn is the 6
and you fire in an additional 250,000.
Your opponent once again makes the call and the river is the K, putting an over card to your pocket pair on the board and the possibility of a flush. You have 418,000 in front of you and your opponent has just 318,000.
The Questions
Do you check or bet? If betting, how much? If checking, will you call or fold if your opponent bets? What kind of hand can your opponent be holding after raising preflop, calling your three-bet and then calling two consecutive streets? If checking, are you worried about being pushed off your hand by a busted draw or pair of jacks? If betting, are you doing so as a bluff, or are you betting for value?
What Actually Happened
After the river completed a board of J 8 6 6 K, Phil Hellmuth decided to put his opponent, Mike Matusow, at risk for the rest of his stack.
Matusow instantly called, tabling 6 6
for quads, which was more than enough to take down Hellmuth’s pocket queens. Hellmuth was left with just 100,000 in chips and subsequently lost the first game of the match.
Though he would rebound to win the second game, Hellmuth ultimately fell short of his second NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship title, finishing in second place for $300,000. Matusow claimed his first major title in five years, earning $750,000 for the win.
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.
