Poker Hand of the Week: 9/4/14You 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
There are five players remaining from a big field in a $2,500 no-limit hold’em event. Due to a $1 million first-place guarantee, the remaining prize pool is extremely top heavy. Here are the remaining payouts.
1. $1,000,000
2. $340,403
3. $219,088
4. $134,096
5. $110,663
You are currently sitting in fourth place with 3,150,000. Here are the remaining stack sizes.
Hero — 3,170,000
Villain no. 1 — 5,085,000
Villain no. 2 — 2,935,000
Other Player — 5,100,000
Chip Leader — 16,750,000
Villain no. 1 raises to 350,000 from under the gun. The chip leader folded and you look down at 10
10
on the button. You call and villain no. 2 moves all in for a total of 2,915,000.
The other player folds his big blind and the action moves back to villain no. 1, who calls.
The Questions
Do you call, fold or raise all in? What would be your reasons for calling? What would be your reasons for folding? How does ICM (Independent Chip Model) affect your decision? Does the top heavy prize pool make you lean in one direction or the other? How does the small side pot affect things?
What Actually Happened
Facing a decision for basically his tournament life at the WinStar River Poker Series main event, Khoa Nguyen decided to move all in for his last 3,150,000 preflop holding 1010.
Chris Drake was already all in holding A8 and Travis Rice had both players covered with JJ
. If Rice’s hand held, he would score a double knockout and Nguyen would receive fourth place money due to his slightly higher chip count to start the hand.
Instead, the board rolled out A
A662 and Drake tripled up. Rice won the tiny side pot and Nguyen was eliminated in fifth place, earning $110,663.
Drake was eliminated shortly afterwards in fourth place, banking $134,096. Rice eventually lost during heads-up play for $340,403. The winner of the event was Jason Helder, who pocketed $1 million.
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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