Playing a two way draw in the big blind

This quiz submitted by DHQ member Adam. Thanks, Adam.

Game type: Small buy in live tournament
Stage of tourney: Early
Avg stack: 2000
Your image: Very tight
Opponent’s image: Seems a little new to the game
Your hand: Q♠2♠

The setup: You’ve been having a tough time of it so far this tournament. Starting stacks were 1500 and you’re stuck shortstacked with 1380 while most of the rest of the table has doubled up.

Preflop, one player who’s been playing a ton of pots limps. The sb completes. You’re in the big blind with Q2 of spades. You check when it gets to you, intending not to get involved unless you flop huge.

K♦J♠10♠

The small blind, who doesn’t really seem to understand how to play poker, leads weak for 1/3 of the pot (minimum bet). You notice the limper check his cards quickly as soon as the small blind bets. What do you do?

10 COMMENTS (Jump to comment form)

Geronimo

If you say he’s new to the game he probably completed the SB with any two cards. Then he randomly caught a piece of the flop so decides to bet, but since he doesn’t have Top Pair he bets weakly because betting patterns are often very obvious for new players (bet weak with a weak hand and bet strong with a strong hand). I would have called because it looks like the other guy will call too with 1 spade and maybe an underpair (or another piece of the flop). So a call with great odds. A push is good too because you would be happy winning that pot. I think a call is still best against a new player because he’ll probably keep betting small on the turn or even check it while a push might make him fold.

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Bob

Push all day long.

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Cristiano

bet small for value.

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Ally

I said to shove, but couldn’t help to think if there was a way to gain value by calling or raising small.

Nah, I think shove is best. You can’t slowplay a draw. On a blank turn, we lose so much equity and if our villain shoves, can we call off our tourney there?

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a shove. If everyone folds, great, we increase our stack by 50%. If we get a caller, we’re going to be a favorite against most holdings.

Min raise or call on that flop is not good since it’s possible you face a shove on the turn (or when you’re three bet all in on the flop). I’d much rather get my stack in with a little fold equity than to call off in a race situation.

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MarKiTo

In a similar hand in cash game nl 1/2 flop was K Q(s) 9(s)
and i had AJ(spades). opponent bet 1/2 the pot and i pushed… counted 15 outs: 3 aces, 4 10 tens and 8 remaining spades, so i would be a favourite, if my opponent didnt have called with J 10, reducing my outs to 11. turn and river didnt help me and i lost…

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abetter spot

I like the pot sized raise here, by raising 480 to 960, we give the player yet to act at least 2 to 1 to call, and the SB will also be given over 2.7 to one to call. I think if we hit our straight or flush, we have the winning hand, and I won’t worry about a higher flush draw here. So if we raise to the 480, lets say the 3rd guy doesn’t play, but the SB does. The pot is then 1320 and we have 760 behind. On the turn, we will be pushing (or calling, if the SB puts us in) regardless of what hits, and we have correct odds to do so even with a blank turn (in worst case, a blank hits, SB puts us in and we call our 760 into to win a pot of 2840, and we have 15 outs to win. As for the third guy, if he plays, we have even better odds throughout and a larger stack.

The push option is fine too, but I think we win only 480 chips here well over 50% of the time (not quite 40% of our stack right now). With the raise to 480, followed by a push of the remaining 760 on the turn, we can’t really make an incorrect decision, but give our opponents the chance to make incorrect decisions on the flop, and another chance for them to make an incorrect decision after the turn card (and one player seems likely to play incorrectly). We also have a good chance of tripling up here, giving us a stack to work with in this early stage of the tourney.

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Rondleman

I have to agree with shoving here. I initially went the route of the small raise for value, knowing that we likely have the best hand (percentage-wise) at this point, but I’m backtracking on that logic. After thinking about it a bit more, like Ally mentioned, what happens when the turn bricks and the SB fires again? We’re committed at that point, and we have very little FE even if we shove a checked turn. (I’m assuming that the initial limper will drop out of course.)

There’s about 40% of our stack in the pot, and with an M of about 7, it’s a good spot to make a stand – a win here would put us in position to continue accumulating and progress through the tourney strongly.

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Eric

Easy shove. Even when we are 50-60% on the flop, villain(s) are not always going to be able to continue when you hit your gin card. On top of that the FE of a shove lessens the variance in the hand if you can take the pot down immediately.

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video pquer for fun jeegos on line

comparably ruler,deaths recommend:disconcert feebleness.hovered

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_Donk_

Why only 7 spades?

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