Poker Hand of the Week: 11/20/15You 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
There are seven players remaining in the biggest tournament of the year. You have 77,400,000 in chips and are the runaway chip leader. The blinds are 300,000-600,000 with a 75,000 ante, giving you 129 big blinds to work with. You’ve been aggressive to this point, but have also shown down some big hands as well.
You look down at Q
Q
in early position and minraise to 1,200,000. The cutoff, a methodical, yet active player in third place with 33,100,000, calls. The big blind, who is in fourth place, also calls.
The flop comes J
8
6 and the big blind checks. You fire in a continuation bet of 1,600,000, and the cutoff takes his time before calling. The big blind folds and the turn is the J.
This time, you opt to check. Your opponent thinks it over, and then checks behind. The river is the 5 and there is now 7,625,000 in the pot.
The Questions
Do you check or bet? What are the benefits of betting? Can you get called by a worse hand? If betting, how much? Is your hand more valuable as a bluff catcher? How do you avoid losing a lot to the top of your opponent’s range? How do you get value from the bottom of his range?
What Actually Happened
At the 2015 WSOP main event final table, chip leader Joe McKeehen found himself betting his pocket queens for value on a board reading J86J5.
His opponent, Ofer Zvi Stern, eventually called the 3,800,000 bet with pocket sevens and was shown the bad news. Stern went on to finish the tournament in fifth place, earning $1,911,423.
McKeehen 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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