Poker Hand Of The Week: 2/20/14

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 seated at a seven-handed final table that has just begun. With 2,360,000 in chips and blinds of 20,000-40,000 with a 5,000 ante, you are in fourth place with 59 big blinds.

In early position, you look down at 1010 and min-raise to 80,000. A player with a nearly identical stack size (2,340,000), three-bets to 215,000 on your direct left. The action folds around back to you and you decide to call.

The flop comes down 986, giving you a gutshot straight draw to go with your overpair. You check and your opponent bets 165,000. You decide to call and the turn is the J, giving you an open-ended straight draw.

You check again, and your opponent bets 255,000. You call and the river is the J. You have 1,720,000 remaining in your stack.

The Questions

Do you check or bet? If checking, are you planning on a check raise, check call or check fold? If betting, how much? What kind of a hand is your opponent representing? If you bet, what worse hands will call and what better hands may fold? What other parts of your line would you do differently if given the chance?

What Actually Happened

At the final table of the Aussie Millions main event, Jake Balsiger opted to check his pocket tens on a board reading 986JJ and his opponent, Darren Rabinowitz, checked behind.

Rabinowitz showed 109 for a pair of nines and Balsiger took the pot.

Rabinowitz ended up busting in fourth place, earning AUD $450,000. Balsiger held on for third place, banking AUD $650,000. The eventual winner was Canadian Ami Barer, who took home AUD $1,600,000.

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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