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Pair on the river in position, high stakes shorthanded cash
Game type: 25/50 6 max online, PokerStars
Your image: Strong regular
Opponent’s image: Possibly inexperienced at these stakes
Your hand: T♦9♦
This quiz is from Dani “Ansky” Stern, a cash game pro and an instructor over at PokerSavvy Plus. PS+ offers one of the strongest lineups of online coaching videos available. Visit them here.
The setup: In this hand, my opponent raised from under the gun to $175. The next player folded, and I called from the button with Td 9d. Both blinds folded. In this situation, I will almost always call with this type of hand if I am not re-raising. Folding is simply not an option here, for a few reasons. First of all, with deep stacks, position becomes of extreme importance. It is important when playing 100 big blinds deep, but even more so when the stacks start to get really deep. Secondly, I felt I had a significant post-flop edge versus my opponent, who was quite possibly inexperienced at these stakes.
The flop came T♣5♠3♥. This is a good, but potentially dangerous flop for my hand. It is likely I have the best hand, but I have to be careful not to create a big pot if I have the worst hand. My opponent bet $300 and I called. In reality, calling is the only play here. Some players may raise, but I think that is generally a mistake. There are no draws on the board to worry about, and in all likelihood I am either way ahead or way behind in the hand. Until I have reason to believe otherwise, I will generally proceed cautiously and just call.
On the turn, the 6♣ fell. This was a relatively safe card for me, unless my opponent had an unlikely 6-5 or 7-4. He checked very quickly, although not instantly. This led me to believe he never really considered betting the turn, which is a crucial part of the hand. At this point I have to assume he is either checking to check-fold with a totally whiffed hand, checking with the intention of check-calling with a marginal hand, or check-raising with either a very strong hand or a semi-bluff. Given this opponent, the chances of facing a semi-bluff check-raise here were very small, so I decided to bet $750 into the roughly $1,000 pot. He thought for about ten seconds and made the call.
At this point it is important to establish a relative hand range for my opponent. Since he merely check-called the turn, I can all but rule out any overpairs. Pocket pairs JJ and higher would almost certainly have either bet again or check-raised, and the same is true for hands like A-T and K-T. He may have check-called if he held Q-T or J-T, but the fact that I held one of the tens made those hands less likely. Additionally, many players would not be raising from under the gun with those hands, especially if they were offsuit. His most likely hands at this point were pocket pairs lower than TT (but not a set). Hands like 77 and 44 were especially likely given that they have some showdown value as well as drawing value.
The river was an offsuit king, and he again checked very quickly. What’s your play?
Loading …7.17.08 / 3am
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7.17.08 / 6am
How are AK, KQ, KJ, A10 not very likely holdings for him? He raises UTG, c-bets, check calls a crap turn hoping he’s up against either an unpaired hand, or worried about a big hand….then hits the king. After check calling the turn, hes going to check the river regardless of what hits, then either call raise or fold depending on his hand and read…but now we’re value betting with second pair and medium kicker? I dont think so…Im checking this.
7.17.08 / 7am
I agree with the value bet here. It’s a way ahead or way behind situation and the fact that our opponent showed weakness on the river tells me that he is most likely viewing it the same way. It’s a relatively small pot in relation to the stack sizes, but I might consider a blocking bet (which would double as a suck bet) so you can get away from the hand easily when you’re behind. Something closer to 1/3-1/2 of the pot.
7.17.08 / 8am
After the river, every hand is way ahead or way behind. like, 100% to 0%. If you value bet and he has a king, hes calling. He’ll probably call with a 10 also based on how it played out and if he has a 10 its most likely better then ours. If you value bet and he reads weakness for whatever reason, or, as it turns out hes got k/10 or any other strong hand, he’s raising. On the other hand, you MIGHT extract value from a few hands that just dont believe you have a king or 10 and are behind…namely pocket pairs 99 and down and want to pay to see despite the 2 overcards. Overall, betting puts you in a danger situation as a call will most of the time mean you lose, and if he raises it puts you in a predicament you dont want to be in. Checking loses value against the slim range of scenarios where someone with a weaker hand then 2nd pair mid kicker decides to call. Balance the likley outcomes and reactions from villain and its an easy decision. Check.
7.17.08 / 8am
A good example of a professionally played hand and the higher-level thinking that a pro uses.
However it wasn’t much of a quiz. The way it read, the only logical conclusion was to value bet - as the question followed along in the pro’s thinking.
I think it makes a better quiz to put less thinking in the question and more in the answer.
The check-call on the turn told you they have something which isn’t really strong and are probably willing to call you down if it isn’t too expensive. The only hand I’m really worried about is AK.
7.17.08 / 8am
This is an example of a very thin value bet. I would not be making a bet here, as Very rarely you’re going to get a call from a worse hand, and every better hand will call you. Just because his opponent in this hand had a Very slim set of holding that would make a call on the river possibly plausible (I know that hand would be hitting the muck so fast it wouldn’t be funny in that situation) doesn’t mean that most of the time this is a losing proposition. This player is trying to teach a concept that granted is a good concept, but used the wrong hand to do so. If you tried this in a poker room, you’d be walking away in a few hours wondering where your chipstack went.
7.17.08 / 9am
New to this level of play, I think the villain would lead on the riv if they held a K. If the villain is holding A10 or K10 he is leading on the turn. May have AQ, AJ, 88, 77, 44, so I’ll make a value bet of 1/2 the pot.
7.17.08 / 11am
What is going on. In order to see the results of the hand we have to watch a video and in order to watch we have to sign up. Another case of commercialism.
7.17.08 / 11am
The idiot had pocket nines and called on the river. With that Board. He must have not been looking.
7.17.08 / 11am
Here’s how I narrow his range:
Preflop bet (considering the deep stacks): Any pocket pair, broadway combo, suited A, or suited connectors.
Post flop lead: Weak Suited connectors eliminated.
Post turn check: JT-KT, 22 eliminated. Would expect a lead here to assess my hand.
Post turn call: JJ+, AT eliminated as lead or check/raise appropriate. KJ/QJ not clubs should fold. Non club suited A9- (except 6 and 4) eliminated.
Post river check: Hands that I can eliminate due to likely value bet include set/two pair (likely eliminated already, but this cements). KQ/KJ seems unlikely, but he may not be very confident.
Hands remaining: 44,77-99, A6, A4, AcXc, which I’m ahead to all of them. I think there’s an outside chance that holds KQ or KJ and will call.
He’s just shown too much weakness for me to think he has me beat. I’d be nervous about floating a value bet that’s too high just in case I whiffed on my read, but it’s hard for me to imagine that I’m down. Hands that might call here are 77-99 and A6 and KQ/KJ. Like I stated, I’m very dubious about KQ/KJ, so a value bet that’s not going to get me in too much trouble seems right. I’d have gone with a half pot raise. If the read on the player is “solid online pro” I check the river.
7.17.08 / 3pm
What happens when he reads your value bet on the river & check raises (semi-bluff with the 99)? What is the play then? I think you have to lay down, but curious to see what the “pro” says.
10.22.08 / 12am
Bettings is prolly the worst thing you can do here. its Very Simple - i Am a professional player and play every day 8 hours. These are your options. Value betting pair of tens 9 kicker will always get u into crap. Even though the odds of hitting better then a pari are 30- 1. Why bet Check and take the pot. or loose to a hand he was guna raise ur value bet. if he had a set - he woulda played it the same. if he had obv a PP over ten he wold have bet at some point. So ur either going to win a small pot or loose a big one. DURRR. check and win. why bet . with 2.5 million hands that can be held in a poker match PRITTY SHURE you can pick better then PAIR of tens nine kicker to value bet.
11.20.08 / 11pm
Christian,
What you fail to understand is that this dude actually knows what he’s doing…from the looks of it, you don’t at all.
7.16.08 / 3pm
Ansky says… Some may view the king as a bad card for our hand, as it is now an overcard to our pair. However, there are almost no hands he can have that contain a king. While we may be trained to be a little scared of that card, we ought not to be.
With the pot size now at roughly $2,500, I needed to come up with a good bet size. If I bet too big, I limit the amount of hands he can call with, which kills the value of my hand. If I bet too small, I will lose too much value. In this spot, anywhere from a half-pot to almost full pot would be a reasonable bet size. I felt that $1,750 was an amount that would get called a fair percentage of the time, while also not being too small. My opponent thought for almost a minute and finally called me with two nines.
Regardless of the results, I am happy with how I played this hand. By paying close attention to all of my opponent’s actions, I was able to extract maximum value from a medium strength hand.
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