Poker Hand of the Week: 7/17/14You 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 on the final table bubble of the biggest tournament of the year. With 22,750,000, you are sitting in third place overall. The blinds are 150,000-300,000 with a 50,000 ante, giving you nearly 76 big blinds. There is one short stack at the table with just 18 big blinds.
A player with 19,850,000 sitting in sixth place, raises to 750,000 from early position. You look down at Q
Q
on the button and make the call. The blinds fold and the flop is A83
.
Your opponent bets 950,000 and you make the call. The turn is the 10 and your opponent checks. You check behind and the river is the 2
. Your opponent checks again. The pot size is currently 4,350,000.
The Questions
Do you bet or check behind? If betting, how much? What kind of range is your opponent representing by raising preflop, betting the flop and then shutting down on the turn and river? Is there a hand he would call a value bet with? Is it possible he is holding a weak ace, and if so, can you get him to fold by turning queens into a bluff? Do you regret not raising preflop? Should you have bet the turn?
What Actually Happened
At the 2014 World Series of Poker main event final table bubble, Mark Newhouse opted to check behind holding QQ on a board of A83102.
His opponent, Daniel Sindelar, turned over KJ for king high and Newhouse took down the pot. Both players wound up making the official final table, becoming members of the November Nine. For Newhouse, it was his second consecutive trip to the final table.
Newhouse will enter the final table in third place with 26,000,000 in chips. Sindelar will be in fifth place, with 21,200,000.
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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