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
There are six players remaining in a high-stakes tournament and only five will make the money. With blinds of 5,000-10,000 with a 1,000 ante and a stack of 400,000, you have 40 big blinds and are sitting in third place.
The chip leader, a player with 891,000 in chips, raises to 22,000 from under the gun. Another player with 381,000, who is in fourth place, calls directly behind him. You decide to defend your big blind with 7
4.
The flop comes down 9
83, giving you a flush draw. You check and the original raiser checks as well. The other player then bets 45,000 and you call.
The original raiser folds and the turn is the Q. You check and your opponent checks behind. The river is the 6, giving your your flush.
Your opponent has 313,000 in chips remaining and the pot size is 167,000.
The Questions
Do you check or bet? If betting, how much? Your opponent checked behind on the turn. What does that tell you about his hand? If checking, do you anticipate a bet from your opponent? Would you check-raise that bet or simply call?
What Actually Happened
After making his flush at the 2013 $100,000 buy-in WPT Alpha 8 tournament in St. Kitts, Philipp Gruissem opted to check.
His opponent, Jason Koon, checked behind and mucked after seeing Gruissem’s rivered flush.
Koon went on to finish in fourth place, earning $298,760. Gruissem won the tournament, his second Alpha 8 title and the first-place prize of $1,086,400.
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.
*Photos courtesy of World Poker Tour
