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Poker Hand of the Week: 10/30/14

You 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 in a major international tournament. Each player is guaranteed at least £133,800. The winner takes home £499,700. The stack sizes are as follows.

Player no. 1 — 9,025,000
Player no. 2 — 4,135,000
Hero — 3,590,000
Player no. 4 — 2,075,000
Villain — 1,330,000

You look down at QSpade SuitQClub Suit under the gun and min-raise to 200,000. The action folds around to the villain in the big blind, who makes the call. The two of you have been involved in several hands recently, the last of which saw you double through him on what was essentially a coinflip.

The flop comes down KSpade SuitKClub SuitJHeart Suit and your opponent checks. You bet 230,000 and he moves all in for a total of 1,120,000.

The Questions

Do you call or fold? If calling, what kinds of hands do you expect your opponent to show down that you are beating? Would your opponent be likely to play a king in this way? If you were the villain, how would you play a king? How would you play a jack? Does the villain have enough fold equity to do this with any two cards? If you are the hero, is checking the flop behind a better option to maintain pot control?

What Actually Happened

At the 2014 EPT London main event, Kevin MacPhee made the call with his pocket queens on a flop of KSpade SuitKClub SuitJHeart Suit and his opponent, Jake Cody, showed down a superior KDiamond Suit10Diamond Suit.

The turn was the QHeart Suit, however, giving the advantage back to MacPhee. Cody needed a jack, ten or king on the river, but the 2Club Suit sent him to the rail in fifth place.

Cody earned £133,800 for his finish. MacPhee eventually went on to finish in second place, banking £308,500. The winner was Germany’s Sebastian Pauli, who earned £499,700 and his first EPT title.

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.