February 6, 2012

Daily Hand Quiz

DailyHandQuiz

Game type: 1/2 no limit cash on PokerStars
Your image: Fairly aggressive
Opponent’s image: TAG
Your hand: J♣J♦

This hand is from our archives and originally appeared on 5/2/08. View the original quiz and comments here.

The setup: Nothing’s really developed for you so far this session. You’ve been involved in a few pots, taking away some and being forced to walk away from some others when opponents pushed back. You’ve resolved to tighten up a bit when the following hand occurs. You get JJ in the BB. The table folds to the SB, who makes it 3x to go. You call. Flop:

Q♥5♣7♠

The SB leads for $10. Given your image, you decide to play it safe and just call. The turn brings the 8♣. The SB fires $22 into $32.

What’s your play?

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12 COMMENTS  (Jump to comment form)

DHQ Staff


What we said then: Seems like it’s time to find out where you’re at in the hand. A safer turn might have allowed you to opt for a call down, but this one puts so many draws on board that you can’t risk letting your opponent name their own price for backing into some weird made hand.

Raising here not only gets you the information you need (I think a three-bet bluff is pretty unlikely from most opponents here), but it also lets you get value when you’re ahead and might allow you to get to a cheaper showdown when you’re behind. I think you can make it about $70 or so and plan to check the river if you’re called.

Folding probably isn’t terrible with only 8BBs invested in the hand, but the value you can get out of drawing hands tips this to a clear raise for me.

What actually happened: You called and the river brought the 6c. The SB fired $60 and you folded.

[Reply]

Sunshine


Pretty much with the staff on this one — raise, figure out where you are, gauge the river from that. Can only make this play if you’re prepared to fold the river if he calls and fires a third time or simply re-raises you here.

Side note, I kinda don’t like the pre-flop play.. if you’d figured out where you were with a 3-bet pre you’d never have even ended up in this somewhat awkward situation.

Just a fun little site
http://www.ihatejacks.com

[Reply]

Richard P


We’ve called so far, why stop now! If we reraise to $70 we have put another $48 into the pot with no idea if ahead or behind just to see where we are at. Where we are at is a bad place with jacks as didn’t reraise pre flop. By just calling we could get value out of a pair worse than ours (as opp would think the queen would raise) or a busted draw when opp bets the river for about the same price as our information raise. Plus we could improve to beat opp on the river if we are behind.

[Reply]

drhoho


I kinda went with the staff on this one, except I migth raise sligthly smaller. Probably a mistake on my part.

Preflop: I really dont like the flatcall with JJ. Perhaps is because I usualy play shorthanded that I think more aggressive. If a TAG had a strong hand i SB, wouldnt he protect it more than only making it 4$ more for an agressive player to call, when he is out of position? I dont know, perhaps he just always make this inviting play though it is a leak imo. I make it ~25$ total preflop. Seems to me like he want a cheap flop, dont let him have it.

Flop: I like the call just fine

Turn: As a lot of draws appear on the board, I start to find villains betting pattern suspicious. He bet 83% pot on a rather draw-free flop, now as the draws appear he bets 0nly 70% pot. This seems to me like he hoped to c-bet you off the hand on flop you seldom connect to, but he picked up a draw on turn and want to keep the betting low compaired to the stacks. If he really had the queen, he would want to bet more for two reasons:
1) To protect from draws
2) To find out for sure if he is good

I know I am reading way too much in the betsizes of a villain of whom we are not told enough, but even if he does have a queen, he will often fold when we do the “hit-monster amd flatcall flop to raise turn” dance. Otherwise se will take his money in some other hand, as calling with just a Q commits him to stacking off with top pair on river in a hand he raises too little out of position preflop.

Protect your hand/find out where you are at by raising his inconsintantly low bet.

[Reply]

Richard P


In an interview with Bobby Hoff in Harrington’s cash book there is a great quote along the lines of: “I hear players say they bet to see where they were at. Well I can tell them – you’re in big trouble buddy”.

[Reply]

Mike


Should’ve 3 bet pre-flop, would taken care of everything early.

[Reply]

Rhycar


Difficult situation, one which you should rarely let yourself get into. SB could have raised with anything just to steal your blind. In many situations where it’s folded to me and I’m in the small blind, I’ve raised with any two cards. If your big blind is raised and you have JJ, what in the world are you doing just calling?

Same thing with post flop, you should have raised there and tried to end it. Now you’ve got a straight draw, a flush draw and an overcard on the board and you STILL have no idea where you are in the hand! Because you’ve played it this poorly so far, might as well fold and save your money. Calling is an absurd choice, it’s either raise or fold in this spot, and I’m folding here.

As an aside, I know that every now and then you should just call with a big pair to keep your opponents guessing. But that should happen very rarely (maybe 10% or less of the time in a cash game).

[Reply]

Utherrex


Well ..maybe this is the time a TAG player raise to steal a blind oop…but ussualy the Tag’s do have good cards don’t they?
according to this description…i would guess that he is holding 99, TT, KK, AA or AQ, KQ
he has some hand for sure and it would be odd that he would be after a draw…that I would expect from a tag player. So, I fold.
Agree that this was poorly played pre flop and flop. Flop shold be raised to find out cheaply if he has the Q or better, or not.

[Reply]

samo2


Can not change how the hand was played so I voted fold. Believe it is too late to see where you stand. In that case would have 3-bet the flop and go from there. Investment is too costly now with that board and my JJs.

[Reply]

_CityBorn_


Raise. Theres still a good chance you have the best hand, and calling will only make the situation scarier and more expensive on the river. There are 2 cards in the deck that help you and you pretty much dont want to see any of the others. A raise here will also most likely get you a check down on the river if he called the raise, unless he’s got some real heat or rivers a monster.

[Reply]

bobbob


I agree with Utherrex and samo2.
With board Q578 and TAG betting on every street, now 2/3 of the pot, it’s too costy to see the river or raise here.
Badly played.

[Reply]

Matt


SB is such an a-hole, shoulda just chop the blinds and move on to the next around. I would of agree if I was BB with JJ.

[Reply]

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