Poker Hand of the Week: 11/10/16You Decide What's The Best Play |
|
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
You are heads-up in the biggest tournament of the year and playing for $8 million. You are guaranteed $4.6 million. With 119,300,000 in chips and the blinds 1,200,000-2,400,000 with a 400,000 ante, you are working with nearly 50 big blinds. So far at the final table, you’ve built up a very cautious, if not passive image.
Your opponent, a wild and hyper aggressive player who is not afraid to make big value bets and big bluffs, raises to 6,700,000 on the button. You look down at Q
9
and defend.
The flop comes down 9
42 and you check. Your opponent bets 9,700,000 and you call. The turn is the 10. You check and your opponent bets 27,700,000.
You call, inflating the pot size to 89,000,000 and leaving yourself with 73,200,000. The river is the 5
.
The Questions
Do you check or bet? If betting, how much? Are you betting for value or as a bluff? Is it a blocker bet? If checking, what is your plan if your opponent bets? What if he bets big? Do you regret your line, given the description of your opponent? How would you play the flop or turn differently?
What Actually Happened
In the middle of a long, drawn out heads-up match for the 2016 World Series of Poker main event title, Gordon Vayo decided to check his Q9 on a board of 942105.
His opponent, Qui Nguyen, moved all in. After a couple of minutes in the tank, Vayo folded his hand. Nguyen didn’t show his hand, but ESPN cameras revealed it to be J5 for a rivered pair of fives.
Had Vayo made the call, he would have had a 2.4:1 chip advantage. Instead, he was left in a big hole. Eventually, Vayo busted in second place, earning $4,661,228. Nguyen picked up the title, the bracelet and the $8,005,310 first-place prize.
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.
Copyright © 2001-2024
CardPlayer.com. All rights reserved.
