Poker Hand Of The Week -- 9/28/12

Give us your opinion in the comments section below for your chance at winning a six-month Card Player magazine digital subscription.

Ask any group of poker players how you played your hand and they’ll come up with dozens of different opinions. That’s just the nature of the game.

Each week, Card Player will select a hand from the high-stakes, big buy-in poker world, break it down and show that there’s more than one way to get the job done.

The Scenario

There are just 21 players remaining in a major tournament and you are playing at a seven-handed table. With 57 big blinds, you are among the more comfortable stacks remaining.

With the blinds at 15,000-30,000 with a 3,000 ante, you are dealt JJ and raise it to 65,000 from early position. Your opponent, sitting with 40 big blinds, calls from the blinds.

Heads up, you see a flop of 965. Your opponent checks and you continue with a bet of 84,000. Your opponent calls and the 2 hits the turn.

Your opponent checks and you bet 178,000. Again, you are called and the 5 comes on the river, pairing the board. Your opponent then decides to fire in a bet of 250,000, leaving himself with just 640,000 behind. You have 1,374,000 remaining in your stack total.

The Questions

Do you call or raise? If calling, what types of hands do you expect your opponent to be turning over? What hands in his range beat yours? If raising, how much? What types of hands will your opponent lead the river and then pay off a raise with that are worse than yours?

What Actually Happened

Deep in the World Poker Tour Borgata Poker Open, Lee Childs bet the river on a board reading 96525. Jeff Williams, holding JJ, thought about his options for about a minute before settling on a call.

“I think I should raise here, but I just call,” he said. Childs could only show K10 for a busted flush draw and Williams took down the pot.

Childs went on to finish in 14th place, earning $30,083. Williams narrowly missed the televised final table, busting in eighth place for $97,770.

What would you have done and why? Let us know in the comments section below and try not to be results oriented. The best answer will receive a six-month Card Player magazine digital subscription.

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