Poker Coaching: Turning Top Pair In Multiway Pot

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Key Concept: Turning Top Pair In Multiway Pot

You are playing in the World Series Of Poker Main Event with a stack of 45,000 and the blinds at 150-300. It folds to you in the lojack and you look down at A 6.

Question 1: Should you fold, call, raise to 800, or raise to 1,200?

Answer: Unless you know someone yet to act plans to three-bet, raising with all of your suited aces is the ideal strategy. When playing deep stacked, you want to play hands that are able to make the nuts. Suited aces definitely qualify as potential nut hands, so raise with them to 800.

Avoid raising for 1,200 unless there are calling stations at the table who will call with junky hands even if you raise a little larger. While you want to grow a potentially large pot, such large bet sizes only make sense if they generate action.

You raise to 800, the cutoff, small blind, and big blind all call making it four ways to the flop. The flop comes J 5 5 and both blinds check.

Question 2: Should you check, or make a continuation bet of 1,200, 2,400, or 3,600?

Answer: Consider if you are likely to be up against any jacks. The cutoff’s range consists of a lot of decent big cards and pairs, most of which will not fold to a flop bet. Both blinds have similar ranges to the cutoff, and may even be capable of checking a paired jack. If you were against only one opponent, you should bet frequently, but multiway, the best course of action is to check and see what develops.

You check and the cutoff checks behind. The turn card is the A and both blinds check again.

Question 3: Should you check, bet 1,200, bet 2,400, or bet 3,600?

Answer: If you are going to bet, it is ideal to bet small. While you may have the best hand, if you bet and get called or raised, you could easily be in bad shape against a better ace or trips. You may not be behind in the hand, but it is important to consider if a bet will be called by numerous inferior hands, which may be difficult in this spot.

If you were holding A-K or A-Q, this would be an excellent turn to bet because you can get value from worse top pairs, but with A-10 and worse, checking is preferred. 

You check and the cutoff checks as well. The river card is the 3, the small blind bets 600 and is immediately raised by the big blind to 2,800.

Question 4: Should you fold, call, reraise to 7,200, or reraise to 12,200?

Answer: Reraising is out of the question, either for value or as a bluff. There is a high likelihood that the big blind has a premium hand like trips that will not fold to additional aggression. Also, in the WSOP main event almost no one is bluff-raising the river. Against two players willing to put money in the pot, it is time to get out of the way.

You and the cutoff both fold and the small blind makes the call with A Q. The big blind shows the rivered straight with 4 2. By understanding that top pair, no kicker is not a premium hand in a multiway pot, you saved a decent amount of chips.

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