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Deep in a $1,500 buy-in tournament, blinds at 6,000-12,000, everyone folded to the hijack, a generally straightforward recreational player, who raised to 28,000 out of his 800,000 stack. I was sitting with 900,000 and looked down at the beautiful A
A
in the cutoff.
While I would almost always three-bet with aces in this spot, both the button and small blind were quite aggressive. They made it clear that they were going to either win the tournament or go broke trying. Due to their maniacal tendencies, calling became a viable option. If one of them happened to three-bet, I would likely just call, opting to give them a chance to bluff off their stack post-flop.
I called, as did the small blind and big blind. That is not ideal!
The flop came K 6
5. The blinds checked to the hijack, who bet 75,000 into the 128,000 pot.
Both calling and raising have merit. Calling keeps my range wide while also keeping all my opponents in with their marginal made hands and semi-bluffs. Raising forces the junky semi-bluffs to fold, as well as marginal made hands that are drawing thin.
While raising to perhaps 175,000 may be best, calling sidesteps the rare situation where one of the blinds raises and the hijack continues (in which case I would make a disciplined fold).
I called and the blinds folded. The turn was the 2
and my opponent bet 225,000 into the 275,000 pot.
As on the flop, both raising and calling are viable options. The main problem with raising is that it may force the opponent to make a big fold with top pair. The main problem with calling is that it allows my opponent to see the river with his draws (if there are any in his range).
In general, I tend to call when playing against someone who may think K-Q or K-J is good if I call but will fold if I raise (which occasionally is the case deep in a tournament).
I called. The river was the 9. My opponent went all-in for 472,000 into the 728,000 pot.
At this point, I was unsure if my opponent would go all-in with K-Q and K-J, as well as if he would bluff with his busted flush draws. He may just be a tight, straightforward player who is only betting K-K, 6-6, 5-5, and A-K for value. If that is the case, he has nine combinations of sets and six combinations of A-K, allowing me to call due to the pot odds.
I have the best hand 6/15 = 40% of the time but I only need to win 472/(472+472+728) = 28% (not accounting for the payout implications) to profit.
However, if he does not bet with A-K, then clearly, I have an easy fold. If he has any bluffs at all (such as busted flush draws), my call becomes mandatory. However, he may also have some combinations of 8-7 suited in his range, adding to his nut hand combinations.
This is a dicey spot, but my read at the time was that my opponent would not bluff enough and would also not overvalue top pair. So, I should fold. Instead, my good pot odds as well as the fact that my hand was drastically under-represented controlled my action.
I called and lost to K K, for top set.
While I was destined to double up my opponent if I played this hand in any other way, the exact way I played it actually gave me the chance to make an epic laydown, but I failed to do so. What a bummer!
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Jonathan Little is a two-time WPT winner and the 2024 PokerGO Cup champion with nearly $9 million million in live tournament earnings, best-selling author of 15 educational poker books, and 2019 GPI Poker Personality of the Year. If you want to increase your poker skills and learn to crush the games, check out his training site at PokerCoaching.com/cardplayer.
