Cash, NL / Short

Medium ace in high stakes cash game

Thanks to HighStakesReport for the hand history.

Game type: $200 / $400 NL
Your image: Very aggressive
Opponent’s image: Also very aggressive
Your hand: A♥8♦

This hand is taken from actual game play at the 200/400 NL holdem table at Full Tilt. This hand took place between ‘LarsLuzak’ and David Benyamine. You’ll be standing in for David Benyamine

The setup: You’ve taken a couple of nasty beats so far this session and are now playing on a short stack. This hand you’re dealt an A8o. Lars make a standard opening raise to $1,400 and you re-raise to $4,400. Lars calls and you see a flop of:

A♠7♠6♣

You bet $4,800 and Lars calls. The turn is J♥ and you decide to slow down and check. Lars now puts you all-in making it 12k for you to call into a pot of effectively 31k. Is the 8 kicker enough for you here?


10 COMMENTS  (Jump to comment form)

j staines
8.22.07 / 1am

difficult fold to make i don’t blame him for calling, with a little more knowledge of the opponent i think this lay down cud be made EASY as the betting doesnt suggest a hand we are beating.

Anonymous
8.22.07 / 1am

very hard to fold given both of your images.. just unlucky he hit a set of 6’s i guess. but this is most likely a call

Bob
8.22.07 / 3am

Call. You underrepped your hand which means his range is a lot wider.

For people that dont understand what I mean:
Lars raise. He could be doing this with lots of hands
We 3bet. We have a wide range. He knows that.
We bet flop. Standard continuation bet.
He calls - could be a float or a draw. or a PP or made pair. Any good ace probably raises and any better 2 pair raises.

Once he bets his range is still the same.Given odds this is a call.

Ally
8.22.07 / 9am

I voted to call, but in a situation like this, if you are behind, you are most likely way behind and possibly drawing dead.

I really think that the only reason we’re faced with this decision anyway is because DB has already decided to go with the hand–he’s already decided that he will call a shove. If he shoves, he’s only being called by a hand that beats him, but if he checks, he may induce a bluff at the pot since he has looked incredibly weak since the A-high flop. His play almost suggests a hand such as TT/JJ/QQ/KK that can’t like their spot. Therefore, it might be possible to push DB off his hand here with a bluff.

I think DB played it fine, but was unfortunate to run into a set.

But, at the same time, all DB is beating here is a bluff. Maybe a weaker ace, but there aren’t a lot of weaker aces making this play. A bigger ace makes sense as does a set.

I guess this hand is one example of the difficulty of playing a shortstack in a cash game. You’re not going to be deep enough to determine where you are at. You’ll just have to hope you have the best of it and then do whatever it takes to get it all in.

Anonymous
8.22.07 / 2pm

Erika Schoenberg was the kicker for me - Call.

matt h
8.22.07 / 4pm

one thing about voting call or fold on this is you can’t see any betting patterns or tells when they bet. this could be an easy call if your opponent has been putting you all in to steal pots in the past.But i would fold if i sensed any hand what so ever. the worst part is that he reraised with ace 8. thats notta hand to build pots with. after the reasie before the flop he got more sucked in to pot odds. BLuff or no bluff. you don’t know against manaics.

KetszeriCs
8.23.07 / 12am

Lars made a move knowing that the pot odds will force DB to call with almost any made hand or even with a flush draw. As DB-s hand can’t beat much more than a pure bluff (one pair but not ace is not likely to have in L-s hands), I’d fold.

But I’m not good in cash games :)

MarKiTo
8.29.07 / 6pm

Is the kicker good enough?? of course not

If the opponent is not bluffing, you lose.

A8 loses to A7, A6, and higher kickers

lars has shown strenght pre flop, raising to 1400, then calling 4400, call at the flop and all in on turn… if he had A5 or less, its a bluff, because he would only get called if he was losing. Not so hard to fold…

Russj9suited
12.5.07 / 5am

Man its such a hard play but with that many chips to call with just a pair hhhhhmmmmmmmm its a fold for me. ok he is playing agresive so he could be bluffing. but remember he raised from the off. them we re raised. we raise the turn he flat calls. im thinking why raise and then call he obviously hit but because we are making the running he has given you no read at all apart from he raised first.

D
2.2.08 / 8pm

The hand was very simple. I voted for a call but only for a few reasons. The hand that was presented to me was already flopped out. I had an overpair to any pair in the deck, and there aren’t to many draws out there. But I would of played the hand much differently if I was dealt those to cards preflop. I’d probably fold. If you don’t wana make tough decisons where your only right half the time on if theres a better ace out there or not then dont enter hands with hands like that. I’d rather call a raise with 8, 7 of spades then a weak ace. I also would of bet the turn which would of led to him calling rather then pushing. The reason this is good is because if the river is another spade, i can more easily lay down my hand putting him on a better hand and still have about 6 k behind me.

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