FREE preview of my new book, The Main Event with Jonathan Little

The Main Event with Jonathan Little

In this blog post, I will show you a hand from my new book, The Main Event with Jonathan Little, In-Depth Analysis of 54 Poker Hands from my WSOP Main Event that I think is particularly educational.

The book is laid out in a quiz format, forcing you to think about what you would do in each situation before I reveal my play.  You will find this format greatly increases the educational value of the book. 

I use a bit of short hand throughout the book that is explained in the introduction. Just know that in this hand, I had 10-10, my stack was 115,000, the blinds were 400/800-100, and my position was the Button.

I hope you like the preview! Feel free to post any questions or comments you have about the hand and I will be happy to answer them.

Hand 19

H  T-T     S  115,000     B  400/800/100     P  Button

2^nd LAG 40 year old German with 80,000 raises to 1,600.

What did I decide to do?

A. Call 1,600

B. Reraise to 3,200

C. Reraise to 3,800

D. Reraise to 4,300

I call. SB TP lady with 35,000 and BB world class kid with 50,000 call.

This is another situation where I elect to call preflop with a hand most people would reraise in order to keep the pot manageable with a hand that has a decent amount of showdown value if relatively little money goes in the pot. In general, I am opposed to reraising early position raisers, even if they are LAG, when the stacks are deep unless I already have an aggressive dynamic such that I can be happy getting all-in. Since I don’t know how hard my opponent plans to fight if I reraise, I much prefer calling.

K-9-6

Everyone checks to me.

Pot = 7,300

What did I decide to do?

A. Check

B. Bet 3,200

C. Bet 4,800

D. Bet 6,600

I bet 3,200. Only SB calls.

My flop bet is both for value and protection. One of the blinds could easily call with a 9 or 6. My bet will also make A-Q, A-J, and Q-J fold most of the time. Of course, if I get check-raised, I plan to fold. Checking behind is also an option if I get the read that one of my opponents is overly happy.  Betting also makes the hand much easier to play because if I check behind and one of my opponents bets on the turn, I would be in a dicey spot.

K-9-6 4

SB checks.

Pot = 13,700

What did I decide to do?

A. Check

B. Bet 3,200

C. Bet 5,000

D. Bet 9,000

I check.

I assume the SB has either a K, 9, or 6 almost all of the time. She may also have one of the various straight draws. Against that range, the ideal play is to check behind on the turn with the intention of calling most river bets.

K-9-6 4 4

SB bets 6,500.

Pot = 20,200

What did I decide to do?

A. Fold

B. Call 6,500

C. Raise to 13,000

D. Raise to 22,000

I call and beat Q-9.

Sticking with the plan, when she bets, I plan to call because I think she may overvalue random middle pairs while also bluffing with missed draws. I imagine she could easily have a K a lot of the time, but due to the pot odds, I only need to win 24% of the time to break even. I probably win around 50% or more. This seems like an obvious call.

I hope you enjoyed this preview. If you like this instructional format, you can get the full book here. Please feel free to post any questions or comments you have about the hand. If you found this blog post to be educational, please share it with your friends. Thank you for reading.