Card Player Pro

In this column, I am going to discuss a hand with an opportunity to slow-play, fast-play, and something entirely different.

Game	Six-handed $25-$50 cash game on PokerStars
Opponent	Maroonlime: A friend and very aggressive
Stacks	$5,000 (me) versus $6,094
My Cards	A A
My Position	Button

This hand was played at a six-handed $25-$50 no-limit hold'em table on PokerStars. I open-raised from the button to $150 with the A A. The small blind, "Maroonlime," reraised me to $550, and the big blind folded. Right away, I had two viable choices: reraising small, to induce a "five-bet" shove all in (from either a bluff or a strong hand), or flat-calling, to disguise the strength of my hand and play a flop.

This is one of the most common occurrences in high-stakes six-max no-limit games - raising from the button or the cutoff and facing a reraise from a blind, especially with 100-big-blind stacks, like we have here. It is important to keep a sense of balance in mind when making most of your decisions against regular opponents. For example, if your opponent knows you can flat-call with big pairs here, you will have more bluffing opportunities when you call with a marginal hand and miss the flop. Your opponent will be more likely to check-fold, and not continuation-bet if he thinks you are very capable of having a big pair when you call his reraise. This is of course applicable only to a tough opponent. Versus a poor player, balance is not very relevant.

With that said, this time I decided to re-reraise (four-bet). This was because of the very aggressive dynamic I had with my opponent. We are friends, and we know how aggressive both of our games are. With 100-big-blind stacks, your reraising size with either strong or weak hands should be fairly small. You want to make it look like you are not committing yourself to the pot. In this hand, I decided that $1,200 would do the trick. Maroonlime called.

At this point, because I laid him such good odds preflop, he did not necessarily have to have a very strong hand here. The flop came down A J 4. I flopped the nuts, with a $2,450 pot and only $3,800 behind. Getting all in here should not be at all difficult if Maroonlime has any reasonable piece of the board or a draw. The key, however, is not to slow-play, and not to play it too fast, either. Betting huge here would be pointless, as it eliminates the chance of your opponent making any kind of bluff. Checking behind and slow-playing can actually look stronger than betting - since your opponent in such a situation would rarely expect you to give up on a bluff. It will typically appear that you have a hand like Q-Q or K-K - but with $2,450 already in the pot, if your opponent has any hand better than those, he will get all in if you bet, anyway. Your best chance to stack a bluffing hand or a made hand right now is to bet small enough to look like you could still fold. I decided to bet $1,000. Maroonlime called.

At this point in the hand, it was hard not to be confused about his cards. He called $1,000 with only $2,800 more behind, in an already massive pot. To be honest, I was not really sure what his range was. My educated guess was that he could easily have had something very marginal, or perhaps a medium ace, hoping I'd bluff at the pot, or even a random J-X hand. The turn card was a blank, the 5. He checked again. At this point, I figured it would look most like I was giving up on a bluff if I checked. I would not expect Maroonlime to put me on a bluff if I shoved this turn, and this, combined with the fact that I already had two of the remaining aces in the deck, prompted me to check and risk a free card. The cost of giving my opponent a free card if he is drawing is outweighed by the possibility of getting his stack on a bluff when he misses.

The river was the 6. Maroonlime moved all in for $2,800 into the $4,450 pot, and I immediately called. He had K-Q offsuit, for a total bluff. I think in a vacuum that his play there is fairly reasonable, given how often he perceives me to be bluffing after checking the turn. Given that I know that information, it is important to sometimes feign total weakness with a monster.

To watch Dani Stern comment on and play this hand, point your browser to Card Player Pro, the complete online poker training site, at www.CardPlayer.com/link/ansky5.