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Last week I posted a hand that was submitted to me via email by draidin. If you aren’t up to speed, check it out over here. Now is a good time to mention that anyone can feel free to shoot me an email at jacob@threads13.com anytime you have a hand you’d like to discuss.

I think this hand hits on some key concepts. Here is the hand:

Poker Stars, $0.05/$.10 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 7 Players
Only a few hands in. The table has been somewhat loose and passive. I have not raised any hands PF. But I have won a couple of pots with one show down holding KQ.

Hero (BB): $12.40

UTG: $4.35

UTG+1: $2.35

MP: $1.55

CO: $9

BTN: $2.45

SB: $5.50

UTG+1 posts $0.10

Our Hero holds:

J♣T♣

Preflop: UTG folds, UTG+1 checks, 2 folds, BTN raises to $0.50, SB calls $0.35, Hero calls $0.30, UTG+1 folds

Flop ($1.50) (3 Players)

J♦9♦T♠

SB checks, Hero checks, BTN bets $0.40, SB calls $0.40, Hero raises to $2, BTN folds, SB calls $1.60

Turn: ($5.70) (2 Players)

K♣

SB checks, Hero checks.

River: ($5.70) (2 Players)

4♠

How would you have played this hand from preflop, flop, and turn? What about the river? What if the villain bets? What if he checks? Thanks!

Firstly, I think the preflop decision hits some interesting concepts. A hand like JTs is a hand that is kind of on that line of where I am “defending” with it. Generally speaking, I am not defending my blinds very often because the blinds are often very small compared to what is left to bet. It is generally not worth the risk to play a weak hand out of position when there is a lot of money left behind. Also, I am not going to be doing that much defending unless I have reason to believe that the raiser is raising a wide range. The wider the raiser’s range, the more value your mediocre hands have. Hand strength is relative in poker. If a guy is raising all of his hands then JTs is a good hand. If a guy is raising only AA then JTs isn’t very good¹. However, at this level I would assume that most of the raisers are raising with a reasonably tight range (and draidin did tell us that it is a loose passive game ) until I have been proven otherwise.

There is a difference here though. The raiser is short stacked. When the stacks get shorter you can start looking at preflop odds a bit more because they are going to be more telling of how the hand will actually play out compared to if the stacks were deeper. With short stacks you can call and hope to flop a pair and just get it in on the flop profitably. You aren’t risking as much when you are very far behind and the amount in the pot is much larger in relationship to what is left to bet. Also, when the stacks are shorter there will be less betting postflop. When there is less betting postflop the player with position doesn’t have AS huge of as an advantage. All of this makes calling with some weaker hands more attractive.

Taking a look at this spot, we are getting offered about 4-to-1 (3-to1) on a call. Those are good odds against a short stacked player. It is true that the small blind has a little bit deeper of a stack, but I don’t think that his is deep enough to deter you from calling and you still have position on him anyways. I think these pot odds are enough of a reason to call. If you call you will have a $1.50 pot and the button only will have a little over a pot sized bet left. That gives you an SPR of about 1.3 against him and 3.3 against the SB.

Our hero called and the flop came down JT9 with a flush draw. We flopped top two pair(a strong hand) on a dangerous board in a big pot. Say this next sentence out loud and I think the correct strategy will present itself. “We flopped a strong hand in a big pot that has a dangerous board.”

Big Pot

Dangerous Board

 

I know it seems weird to call this a big pot, but remember that you have to think about the pot sized in terms of how much there is left to bet. There isn’t much left to bet, so this is a big pot.

 

The first question I would ask myself when that flop comes down is “Am I committed?”. With a hand like this I definitely am committed. There are plenty of worse hands that will get all in with us (AJ-QJ/AT just to name a few). So, since I am committed I want the money to go in. Given that the pot is big and the board is dangerous I don’t like checking here. I do not want to risk a free card. I want to maximize my chances of winning this pot. I am betting. I think there are two options for your bet size. I think you could either just bet enough to get the button all in or I think you bet a slightly smaller amount that commits him to the pot. Given that you are playing at a loose passive game I would just bet enough to put the preflop raiser all in. If the SB check-raises us at that point… well it sucks… but we can’t really put him on a better hand often enough in a pot this hand to fold. He may do that with a draw sometimes or even a worse two pair. If the SB calls I pretty much am putting him on a draw and I may have to slow down if a really scary card comes in.

 

Our hero checked here, presumably going for the check-raise. Another reason that I don’t really like checking in this spot is that a check-raise isn’t necessarily that great either because it allows the bettor to set the price. He made a really small bet so you don’t gain that much by letting him bet to make up for the fact that you are risking a free card.

 

Once the preflop raiser bets $0.40 into the pot and the SB calls then the pot will be $2.70 if you call. The button will have about $1.60 left and the SB will have $4.60 left. A pot-sized raise would be $2.70 more or a raise to $3.10. I still am committed here, and I want to get the money in quickly here. I think the play here would be to move in. You will get called by plenty of funny hands even with a 5/3’s-pot bet.

 

Our hero raised to $2 which is only $1.6 more in a pot of $2.7 on a scary board. I just think this bet is too small. I want to get some money in quickly since I am committed with the likely best hand on a scary board. When the SB calls our turn bet I am thinking he is likely on some sort of draw. He could be on either a straight draw, flush draw, or a pair and a draw. He may also be in there with some good jack. I am planning on getting it on the turn unless it is a really terrible card like a diamond that also completes straights. He will only have $2 left in a pot of $5.70 so that means the pot is really big and I’d hate to give a free card and let a Q roll off and completely kill our hand.

 

The turn card is kind of an ugly card for us because now any Q makes a straight. However, I am of the opinion that his calling range has enough worse hands that it is ok to get the rest in here. I just go ahead and stick the rest in.

 

On the river I would be planning to get some sort of bet in if he checks. If he pushes in on us I think you have a very close decision. I could really see it going either way. I would think he will have us beat ton, but the pot is big and you are getting good odds. I would tend to go ahead and call here.

 

I think the real story of the hand is that you just needed to come up with a plan and then make decisive actions to get the hand to go your way. You want to decide on every street whether or not you are committed and then go about getting it in if you are. When you are committed and the board is dangerous you will want to make big bets to get the money in quickly and to avoid giving too high implied odds. I really think the best way to play this hand would have been to push the flop. Remember, you will do this with semi-bluff hands from time to time (QJ/AQ/T9 to name a few) so they can’t just put you on a huge hand (They can if they want but they will be making a mistake).

 

You can see that by asking yourself whether or not you are committed you can make decisions that seem difficult much easier.

1. Although you may be correct to call with some hands because you can play perfectly against him. This gives you big implied odds. [↩]

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 20th, 2008 at 3:58 pm and is filed under Commitment, Hand Analysis, Hand Discussion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.