Poker Hand of the Week: 2/5/15You 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.
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The Scenario
You are at a four-handed final table of a small, but elite big buy-in live tournament. You are the current chip leader, but only by a small amount over the next biggest stack. The other two players are short, sitting with 12 and 18 big blinds respectively. You and your three opponents are all considered to be among the better players in the world.
The blinds are currently 12,000-24,000 with a 3,000 ante, meaning your stack of 2,925,000 is worth nearly 122 big blinds. The second biggest stack at the table, an aggressive player who started the hand with 2,560,000, raises the button to 55,000. The small blind folds and you call from the big blind with 10
9
.
The flop comes down 10
3
2 and you check. Your opponent checks behind, so you bet 75,000 on the 2 turn card. Your opponent checks and the river is the 6. You bet 200,000 and your opponent raises to 580,000. The pot size is currently 1,064,000 and it will cost you another 380,000 to make the call.
The Questions
Do you fold, call or raise? What would be your reasons for folding? Given the action, what kind of hand is your opponent representing? What would be your reasons for calling? What types of hands are you beating at this point? If raising, how much? Would you be raising for value or would you be turning your hand into a bluff? Do you regret betting the river? Should you have instead turned your hand into a bluff catcher? Is there any value to folding to preserve your big stack for ICM considerations?
What Actually Happened
At the LK Boutique AUD$250,000 Challenge at the Aussie Millions, Phil Ivey went into the tank holding 109 on a board reading 103226.
After several minutes, going back and forth on his decision, Ivey called the raise from Doug Polk, who could only show down A4 for a busted wheel draw.
With that pot, Ivey took a massive chip lead in the tournament and went on to win his third title in four years, banking AUD$2,205,000 ($1,713,285).
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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