Poker Hand of the Week: 4/3/14

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

There are 19 players remaining in a regional $1,000 buy-in tournament. Only 18 will make the money. With a stack of 498,000, you are among the chip leaders. The blinds are 1,500-3,000 with a 500 ante, giving you 166 big blinds.

You look down at QQ in early position and raise to 7,000. Villain no. 1, who has a healthy stack of 260,500, three-bets to 22,000. Villain no. 2, a short stack, calls all in for his last 16,000, creating a small side pot.

With the action back on you, you decide to call and see a flop. The flop comes AAA and you check. Your opponent bets 40,000, leaving himself with 198,000 behind.

The Questions

Do you call or raise? If raising, how much? How does the all-in player affect your decision and your opponent? If calling, what is your plan for future streets? How do you extract the most amount of chips from your opponent given the fact that you are currently on the money bubble? Are there any concerns that your hand might be beat?

What Actually Happened

At the Card Player Poker Tour Atlantis stop in Reno, Nevada, Vincent Remmel opted to make the call for 40,000 with his QQ on a flop of AAA.

The turn was the 9 and he checked. Brandon Honig checked behind and the river was the 6. Remmel bet 60,000 and Honig called, showing 1010. Remmel revealed his pocket queens and took down the sizable pot.

The all-in player, Damon Shulenberger, turned over KQ and was eliminated on the bubble. Honig eventually busted in tenth place, earning $3,441. Remmel went on to finish runner-up, good for $34,467.

The eventual winner was Erkut Yilmaz, who banked $42,665.

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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