Poker Hand Of The Week -- 10/12/12You Decide What's The Best Play |
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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 three-handed for a big tournament title and with 116 big blinds, you have plenty of chips to work with.
One of your opponents, holding 98 big blinds, put out just over a min-raise to 110,000 on the button. You look down at K
K
and decide to three-bet to 300,000 from the small blind.
The big blind, a short stack with only 39 big blinds, folds. The original raiser calls and the flop comes down A 5 4
.
You check and your opponent bets 200,000. You decide to call and the 3 hits the turn. Both of you then check and the A hits the river.
The Questions
What do you do now? Do you bet? If so, how much? Are you betting for value, or as a blocker? Do you check? If so, how much of a bet are you willing to call, if any? What types of hands can your opponent be holding based on his line so far? If you could go back, what would you have done differently in this hand?
What Actually Happened
Three-handed in the World Series of Poker Europe main event, Phil Hellmuth opted to bet a smallish 250,000 on the river of a board reading A 5 4 3 A with his pocket kings.
His opponent, Sergii Baranov, min-raised to 500,000, prompting Hellmuth to make the call. Baranov showed down A 6 and took down the pot.
Baranov went on to finish in second place for €632,592, but Hellmuth rebounded to take home the title, his record 13th gold WSOP bracelet and the top prize of €1,022,376.
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.
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