A Deep-Stacked Hand

I had the privilege of playing in a recent live €1,000 six-max tournament. The tournament really suited me, because it took place in Dublin, (actually just down the road from where I live) and was six-handed, rather than the usual nine or 10-handed. Online I solely play six-max, and I often find it difficult to make the adjustments necessary when playing at a nine-handed table. Part of the problem is boredom — I play poker because I enjoy making decisions. To explain it simply, the more people that are dealt into a hand, the better the average hand will be, and the more important the strength of your hand. It’s very difficult to outplay the nuts!

After the tournament (I finished around 40th) I identified a few areas that I need to improve. Most importantly, my play rapidly diminished after I had been playing for two hours. There is a simple reason for that: when I play online I rarely if ever play for more than two hours. I ended up making a very bad call down in a situation where I would always fold. It wasn’t a huge pot but it surprised me, it was like my brain had switched off. I glanced at my watch and realized I had been playing for three hours and my mind wasn’t on poker anymore.

The most enjoyable period of the tournament for me was the early stages. We started with 400 blinds each, and my table was relatively weak. To me this is poker nirvana. I know from experience that this scenario is ideally suited to me. Weaker players tend to play the later streets worse, and because of the way pots escalate, it’s the last two streets that are often the most important when deep.

Once I have identified someone as being weak, or having at least one defining mistake (too loose, too aggressive, easily intimidated etcetera) there aren’t that many hands that I will fold to them preflop for a single raise. Normally, when you have 100 big blinds, if someone raises, you are getting 33-1 implied odds. In this situation you are often getting 100-1 implied odds. For the first half an hour I folded about two hands, whilst increasing my stack from 20,000 to around 35,000. I then played the most interesting hand of the day. The villain was a solid enough player from Cork. He was quite aggressive, and once he entered a pot he didn’t let go of it without resistance.


He had been raising in late position quite liberally, so when it was folded to him on the cutoff and he raised, I three-bet with 3 2. I did this for several reasons. Firstly, I was concerned that I had only three-bet once in the previous hour. I was actively trying to create a loose and aggressive image (which had worked for the main part), and I didn’t want my three-bets to get too much respect. I also thought that, in a vacuum, three-betting here was going to be positive expected value (because he would fold preflop so much), and that 3 2 was a good hand to do it with. Although it’s a terrible hand, I thought it was inconceivable that my opponent would consider it in my range (it certainly wouldn’t be in his), which is useful. I also thought there was a good chance he would make a move at the pot if he saw the flop, which would hopefully just end up in being more chips for me.

So he made it 350, and I made it 1,100. He considered for a few moments and called. I later grew to realise that this player rarely if ever folded to a single three-bet, so given that information I wouldn’t have three-bet. Unfortunately you can only act on the information you have.

The flop came up J 7 4. Quite a good flop for me as it’s unlikely to have hit him, and I have a flush draw. I led out with a bet of around 1,500. He thought for a while and made it 3,750. This wasn’t entirely unexpected. At this stage we both had around 30,000 left. Had I no hand here, (a hand with very little equity), I would have three-bet it to 8 or 9,000, and then obviously folded to an all-in. Had I a hand with a great deal of equity, I would have three-bet and then called all-in. As it stood though, I had a hand with a reasonable amount of equity, but if I three-bet and he shoved I would have to either fold my hand, or make a negative expected value call.

At this stage I was unsure as to exactly what hand he held. I thought there was a substantial chance he had a weak hand, I knew that he would nearly always make a move at a pot in a situation like this. But there was still a chance he had flopped a set, or slow-played an overpair. I felt there was a good chance I could get almost any one pair to fold at a later stage in the hand if I missed. With all that in mind flat calling was the best option, so I called.

The turn was a 5. So I had gotten lucky and made my flush. This wasn’t entirely positive however — I had the worst possible flush (I had no straight flush draw), and I was out of position, with basically no chance of getting away from the hand if I’m beaten. Such is the danger of three-betting a hand like 32.

I felt like I had two choices here, either to check-raise him all-in, or to check-call his bet. I dismissed leading, because I thought there was too great a chance he had no hand whatsoever. He is never going to bluff all-in with nothing if I lead. (Possibly with a high spade, but I didn’t think it was likely.) However, if I check, the flush coming is going to make him more likely to bluff (to represent the flush). Because of what happened preflop, a flush is more likely for him than me, and his flop raise could easily be a semibluff. So it’s because I thought there was a good chance he was on a stone cold bluff, I elected to check-call his bet. If I check-raised all-in I think he would only call with a set or a flush, so hopefully inducing a river bluff would be the most profitable action for me to take. The danger was that the board paired on the river, or worse a fourth spade fell. I had pretty much decided to call anything he bet unless another spade hit. I don’t think he would always bluff a spade, as at that point it’s pretty likely I have a high spade in my hand.

The river was a blank, neither pairing the board nor putting a spade out there. I checked and for a few tantalizing seconds I thought he was going to push all in. He thought the better of it after a while and checked. I showed and caused a small bit of consternation when I showed down 3 2 to win the biggest pot at the table so far. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see what he had, but he didn’t act like it had been a bad beat, so I can only assume he was attempting to bluff me.

Daragh Thomas has made a living from poker over the last three years. He also coaches other players and writes extensively on the boards.ie poker forum, under the name hectorjelly.