A Short Poker Quiz

One of my poker clients suggested that I make up a poker quiz, something I like to do every once in a while. So, here is a no-limit hold'em quiz for you:

1. You are playing in a sit-and-go that has eight players remaining. The blinds are 50-100 and you have 950 left after posting the big blind on this hand. You hold the K Q. The first player calls, a middle-position player calls, and the button calls. The small blind folds and the action reaches you. All of the other players in the pot have more chips than you do. What should you do?

(a) Check (b) Raise to $400 (c) Go all in

Answer: I like (c), go all in. In a money game, with a decent-size stack, I would be unlikely to raise with this hand. Here, you not only have a short stack, but are in a tournament in which the blinds are raised at a rapid rate. You have to be aggressive when you have a decent hand and/or a good situation. Since you want to win the pot right away and would not back off after putting nearly half of your stack into the pot, raising to $400 (b) is awful poker.

2. You are playing in a sit-and-go that has all nine players still in. The blinds are 50-100 and you have 950 left after posting the big blind on this hand. You hold the A 2. Everyone folds to the button, who raises to $500. The small blind folds. What should you do?

(a) Fold (b) Call (c) Go all in

Answer: I would select (c), go all in. Usually, sit-and-go players are aggressively raising with a wide range of hands when on the button with no one in yet. Against such people, you are a favorite to have the best hand. Here is the math. Before the cards were dealt, it was 16-to-1 against your opponent having a pair. If he does have a pair (not aces), you are about 29 percent to win. If you are against a bigger ace, but the opponent's kicker is very small, the same can be said of the size of his advantage, as neither of your kickers may play. You are about 47 percent against either A-3 offsuit or A-4 offsuit. The bottom line is that you have a decent chance to get lucky even when your opponent shows up with a better hand than yours.

Assume on the remaining two questions that you are playing in a money game with $5-$10 blinds and you have a grand in front of you, as does every other player.

3. You have two kings in the big blind. The under-the-gun player opens for a raise to $30, a middle-position player calls, and the button calls. The small blind folds, so there is now $105 in the pot when the action reaches you. A reraise seems in order, so the question is, how much?

(a) Put $105 into the pot (making the total bet $115)
(b) Put $125 into the pot (making the total bet $135)
(c) Put $150 into the pot (making the total bet $160)

Answer: I prefer (c), raising to $160 total. If you selected (a), with the intent of making a pot-size reraise, you made the common mental error of failing to figure in the call ($20 more) before calculating the amount in the pot for the reraise. If you selected (b), you would have made a pot-size reraise. The difficulty with (b) is that you have a situation that calls for a reraise amount of greater than the pot size. The other players all have position on you. If someone outflops two kings, and no scary ace on the board warns you off, you are likely to go broke. Also, the number of players already in for the first raise suggests that a call of your reraise by the original raiser might draw in the whole field, greatly increasing the chance that your hand will be no good. I consider a reraise to less than $160 to be a clear error, and easily could be persuaded that a reraise to $200 might be even better than to only $160.

4. You pick up the A Q in the cutoff seat. A player who has been in the game for only a little while limps in from early position and the rest of the field up to you folds. You raise to $50 straight, and the limper is your only caller. The flop comes Q 7 3. He checks, you bet $100, and he calls. The 2 comes on the turn, he checks again, and you bet $225. He calls. On the end, the 6 comes, and your opponent unexpectedly bets $500 into you. What should you do?

(a) Fold (b) Call (c) Raise all in

Answer: I like (a), fold. Your opponent obviously has a made hand, as he called on both the flop and the turn with no reasonable draw on the board. He does not have a straight, and knows that you do not have one, either. So, why does he make a large bet now? Since he has a made hand rather than a busted draw, and is not betting because his motor is running and he can't shut it off, he is very likely to be betting because he believes his hand is good. Inasmuch as the last card almost surely did not help him, he figures to have been slow-playing a biggie. So, you must ask yourself whether he has misjudged your strength, and whether you really hold a better hand than the betting indicates. Let's see. You raised preflop and followed up with solid bets on the flop and turn. It appears to me that you have the minimum requirement for such betting, top pair with an ace kicker. In other words, you actually have exactly what you have said you have in the betting. This means that if your opponent thinks he has you beat, he either does not understand the game or is correct in his assessment. I do not like to play my opponents for being know-nothings or crazy fools without some evidence. I play them for being ordinary players when I do not know them, and that is of course not the same as loony. Unless you have some reason to think your opponent is a lunatic, throw your hand away. If you call, your opponent is probably going to show you a set of sevens. If he does not have a set, he will show you either aces or kings.

Bob Ciaffone has authored four poker books, Middle Limit Holdem Poker, Pot-limit and No-limit Poker, Improve Your Poker, and Omaha Poker. All can be ordered from Card Player. Ciaffone is available for poker lessons: e-mail [email protected]. His website is www.pokercoach.us, where you can get his rulebook, Robert's Rules of Poker, for free. Bob also has a website called www.fairlawsonpoker.org.