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 have 850,000 in chips with the blinds at 10,000-20,000 with a 3,000 ante, which is good enough for seventh place of the remaining 11 players. You are one spot away from the unofficial final table.
A player who has you covered with 1,150,000 raises to 48,000 from the button and you look down at K
9 from the big blind. You call and the flop is the 8
76 and you check.
Your opponent bets 56,000 and you call with your open-ended straight draw. The turn is the K
and you check again. Your opponent bets 127,000. You have 616,000 behind the bet.
The Questions
Do you call, raise or fold? If calling, what is your plan for river cards that don’t improve your hand? What about river cards that give you a straight? If raising, how much? Is there any value in moving all in? Can you get called by worse hands? If folding, why? What range of hands is your opponent representing by raising preflop and firing two streets?
What Actually Happened
Facing a bet of 127,000 on the turn of a board reading 876
K, Chris Lillie elected to move all in for an additional 616,000 with his K9.
His opponent, Josh Williams, instantly called with 109 for the flopped nut straight, leaving Lillie drawing to a chop. The river was the A and Lillie was eliminated in 11th place, earning $16,850.
Williams went on to finish in fifth place, pocketing $56,799. The eventual winner was Bradford Albrinck, who banked $221,994 and the World Series of Poker Circuit Horseshoe Cincinnati main event title.
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.
