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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 in the money and seated at one of the final six tables in a major European poker tournament. With 740,000 in chips and blinds at 4,000-8,000 with a 1,000 ante, you are well above average and have almost 93 big blinds.
A player with about 350,000 raises from the hijack to 17,000 and villain no. 1, a short stack with 155,000, moves all in from the cutoff. Villain no. 2, a player with 640,000, then moves all in from the button to isolate.
You look down at Q
Q
in the small blind.
The Questions
Do you call or fold? How does the initial raiser affect your decision? Is it possible that the initial raiser and the two all-in players are sharing outs? What does villain no. 2’s all-in overbet tell you about his hand? What kind of tells are you looking for to help you make your decision? Against what kind of players would you make the call? Against what kind of players would you fold?
What Actually Happened
After seeing a raise and two shoves in front of him at the EPT Deauville main event, Luca Moschitta opted to call with his pocket queens. Jose Carlos Garcia, the initial raiser, folded and all three players revealed their cards.
Moschitta was up against short stack Miha Gabric’s AK and Tatu Maenpaa’s KK
.
The board ran out A856
7 and Gabric tripled up. Maenpaa won the sizable side pot, boosting his stack by about 50 percent. After paying off both players, Moschitta was left with only 100,000.
Moschitta was eventually eliminated in 42nd place, earning €12,080.
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.
