Poker Hand of the Week: 4/10/14

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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

There are four players remaining in a $1,500 buy-in tournament. Here’s a look at the stack sizes and the remaining prize pool.

Villain: 3,690,000, Hero: 2,785,000, Other Player: 1,400,000, Short Stack: 450,000

1st Place: $137,283, 2nd Place: $84,833, 3rd Place: $61,988, 4th Place: $46,026

With the blinds at 20,000-40,000 with a 5,000 ante, the cutoff and button fold and you look down at AQ in the small blind. You raise to 100,000 and the villain in the big blind reraises to 280,000. The villain is an older player with a lot of experience.

You call and the flop comes down A84. You check and your opponent bets 400,000. You call and the turn is the 10.

You check again and your opponent bets enough to put you all in. You have 2,100,000, or about 52 big blinds remaining.

The Questions

Do you call or fold? What kind of a hand is your opponent representing? How much of his range can your hand beat? Is there any chance he would play a draw this way? What is the likelihood that he is using the other short stacks as leverage to get you to fold the best hand? What are the ICM (Independent Chip Model) implications of this hand? What kind of physical tells would you be looking for to help you make your decision?

What Actually Happened

Facing a decision for his tournament life at the World Series of Poker Circuit main event in St. Louis, Millard Hale opted to call all in with his AQ on a board of A8410.

His opponent, Robert Panitch, then revealed AK and it held when the 8 hit the river. Hale was eliminated in fourth place and short stack Peter Nigh followed him minutes later in third place.

Panitch then endured a heads-up match with Robert Edelstein that lasted nearly 11 hours before finally securing the win, his second WSOP Circuit ring and the $137,283 first-place prize.

*Photo courtesy of WSOP

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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