PokerCoaching.com Quiz: Should You Go For Thin Value?

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You are playing eight-handed in a $5.50 buy-in tournament online. Blinds are 1,500-3,000, and you have 225,748 chips in your stack. The action folds to the hijack, a loose aggressive player, who raises to 11,589 from a 255,000 stack. The cutoff folds and you are on the button with 8 8.

Question 1: Should you fold, call, reraise to 22,500, or reraise to 36,000?

Answer: While your hand may have a slight equity advantage against the hijack’s range, it is close. The bet was also quite large (almost four big blinds), which may or may not indicate strength. Reraising in this spot, especially with the pot being inflated by the large open raise, allows your opponent to play well, folding small pairs and continuing with pairs that have you beat. The best play is to call.

You call and see a flop heads up. The pot size is 30,378. Flop comes 10 4 2 and the hijack bets 15,189.

Question 2: Should you fold, call, raise to 42,500, or raise to 145,567?

Answer: With only one overcard to your pair on the board, the best play is just to call. You don’t want to raise, as you likely won’t be called by a worse hand. Sometimes 7-7, 6-6, or 5-5 will call, but most likely you will make overcards fold and all hands that beat you will continue. The correct play is to call.

You call and the pot is now 60,756. The turn is the 10 and the hijack checks.

Question 3: Should you check, bet 21,000, bet 30,378, or bet 42,000?

Answer: When the hijack checks, they will often have a small pocket pair or A-X. You want to value bet small against that range, making 21,000 the ideal play, as long as your opponent is not too tricky (and looking to check-raise).

You bet 21,000 and the hijack calls. The pot is now 102,756 and the river is the K. The hijack checks.

Question 4: Should you check, bet 33,000, bet 51,378, or bet 66,000?

Answer: The king on the river is not a great card to bet for more value. However, as played, the hijack should not have many kings in his range. For the most part, the correct play is to check, but a small value bet has merit as well.

With the hijack being loose and aggressive, they could respond by check-raising a small river bet trying to represent a trip tens. Your hand would then be in a tough spot. The best play is to check and usually collect the pot.

You check on the river and the hijack turns over A 3 for ace high with a busted wheel draw. You win a pot of 102,756. ♠