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 directly on the money bubble with 10 players remaining in a major live tournament at two five-handed tables. The average stack is 600,000 and you are sitting with 916,000. The blinds are currently 6,000-12,000 with a 2,000 ante, giving you 76 big blinds to work with.
Another big stacked player raised to 24,000 from under the gun and you call on the button holding Q
J. The big blind, a player sitting with 778,000, calls as well.
The three of you see a flop of A
86 and the big blind checks. The original raiser bets 40,000 and you call, as does the big blind. The turn is the 10
giving you a double gutted straight draw to go with your flush draw.
The action checks to you and you decide to bet 105,000. The big blind calls and the original raiser folds. The river is the Q
and your opponent checks again. You have 745,000 remaining, your opponent has 607,000 remaining and there is 418,000 in the pot.
The Questions
Do you bet or check behind? Given your opponent’s line, what kind of showdown value do you have? If checking behind, what range of hand’s do you expect your opponent to turn over? If betting, how much? Are you betting for value or as a bluff?
What Actually Happened
At the 2013 World Series of Poker Europe $25,000 High Roller, Jason Koon opted to check behind holding QJ on a board reading A8610Q.
His opponent, Scott Seiver, tabled AQ and took the pot. Both players made the final table, with Koon finishing in seventh place for €63,500. Seiver busted in sixth, earning €74,600.
The eventual winner was Daniel Negreanu, who secured WSOP Player of the Year honors along with his sixth bracelet and the €725,000 first-place prize.
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.
