Poker Hand of the Week: 2/27/15You 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.
The Scenario
You are in the money and at a final table of eight in a mid-stakes regional tournament. You are already guaranteed to cash for at least 13 times your original buy-in. With 1,630,000 in your stack, you are sitting in third place overall. The blinds are 15,000-30,000 with a 5,000 ante, giving you just over 54 big blinds to work with.
The chip leader, an aggressive young pro with a stack of 2,020,000, raises to 60,000 from under the gun. The action folds around to you in the big blind and you look down at A
K
. You call and the flop comes down J77
.
You check and your opponent bets 75,000. You call with your two overcards and the turn is the K. You check again and your opponent bets 165,000. The pot is currently 490,000.
The Questions
Do you call or raise? If raising, how much? What are the benefits to calling? Are you looking for a safe river card, or are you concerned your opponent might have a better hand? Is there any value to raising now for information or to protect against any draws? Is your hand best served as a bluff catcher? What kind of hand can your opponent be holding?
What Actually Happened
At the WSOP Circuit main event at the Palm Beach Kennel Club, Daren Stabinski was faced with a 165,000 bet holding AK on a board reading J77K.
Stabinski called and the river was the 9. Stabinski checked, and his opponent, Darryll Fish, bet 275,000. Stabinksi called with his top pair, top kicker, but Fish revealed Q
10 for a rivered straight.
Stabinski recovered just enough to ride his stack out to a fifth place finish worth $43,610. Fish went on to win the tournament, along with his first WSOP Circuit ring and the first-place prize of $173,189.
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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