Poker Hand of the Week: 11/14/15You 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 sitting three handed in the biggest tournament of the year, but unfortunately, you are the short stack with just over 12 big blinds remaining. The next shortest stack has about 39 big blinds and the chip leader is cruising with 141 big blinds. You are already guaranteed a $3.4 million payday, but moving up the pay ladder is worth an additional $1.1 million.
The second shortest stack has the button and min-raises to 2 million. The chip leader in the small blind then three-bets to 5.4 million. You look down at pocket deuces, and have 10.975 million behind your ante and big blind.
The Questions
Do you call, raise or fold? Does your decision change given the action of the second shortest stack on the button? What are the ICM (Independent Chip Model) considerations? If calling, what is your plan for the flop? If raising, do you expect a fold or is this just a good spot to gamble?
What Actually Happened
Facing a raise and reraise at the 2015 World Series of Poker main event, Neil Blumenfield opted to move all in with his pocket deuces from the big blind for his last 12 big blinds.
The original raiser, Josh Beckley, folded his A-7. Chip leader Joe McKeehen, however, instantly called with pocket queens. The board ran out 10
74
4
K and Blumenfield was eliminated in third place, earning $3,398,298.
In hindsight, Blumenfield should have folded. His shove had no fold equity, so even if McKeehen was bluffing, he was still going to have two over cards, making it a coinflip situation at best. As it turns out, Blumenfield was only about 20 percent to double up.
McKeehen, of course, went on to win the tournament, the bracelet and the $7,683,346 first-place prize.
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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