Poker Hand of the Week: 8/26/16You 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 heads-up for a major high roller title. An initial field of 102 has been whittled down to two, and you are now guaranteed at least €903,600 from an initial €50,000 investment, but the winner will earn €1,300,300.
You began heads-up play essentially tied in chips with your opponent, who is a solid high-stakes regular, but in the 14 hands since you have pulled away with a 4:1 chip lead. With the blinds at 100,000-200,000 with a 25,000 ante, your stack of 20,775,000 is worth 103 big blinds. Your opponent has 4,725,000.
Your opponent limps in from the button and you check your option with Q
4
in the big blind. The flop comes down 875 and you check. Your opponent bets 300,000 and you call with your flush draw and gutshot straight draw.
The turn is the 6, giving you the bottom end of a straight. You check and your opponent bets 625,000. You call and the river is the 6, giving you a queen-high flush. There is 2,300,000 currently in the pot.
The Questions
Do you check or bet? If betting, how much? Given your opponent’s line, how likely are you to have the best hand? Could your opponent have a better flush or even a full house, or was he betting a straight on the turn? If he did just have a straight, how likely is he to call a river bet? What will you do if your river bet is raised? If you check, how big of a bet would you call?
What Actually Happened
At the 2016 EPT Barcelona high roller event, Fedor Holz was holding Q4 on a board of 87566. Despite having a passive line throughout the hand, Holz opted to bet 625,000 on the river, the same amount his opponent bet on the turn.
Sam Greenwood called the bet relatively quickly, but could only show disgust as he revealed 9
7 for the turned nine-high straight.
On the very next hand, Greenwood lost the rest of his stack to Holz, who claimed his sixth title of the year along with the €1,300,300 first-place prize. Holz has now essentially locked up the Card Player Player of the Year title with 6,758 points and $15,988,834 in earnings.
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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