Daily Hand Quiz

“The blinds both check and you bet 350″

Ummm, the table says the BB is 500 so this isn’t possible.

“The SB calls and the BB check-raises to 700″

The graphic says 1700.

“You’re playing a very deep stack early on in this $25. This hand, the table folds to you on the button and you raise to 3x. ”

The pot is 4500, and 3xBB of 500 preflop times 3 for each player plus any bet is greater than 4500.

With one error with regards to betting, sometimes we can iron it out. With 2 or 3 it’s confusing.

I’m guessing the actual blind level is 25/50 with 5 or $10 ante and the stack sizes are correct. : 150*3=450 +350=800+700=1500+8*5=1540 with 350 more to call.

Well Fold is out, he has a straight flush, he has a straightflush, but we are definately not folding get 5 to 1 on a call with the A hi flush.

So Raise/call: which gets more money in?

I like calling here then betting the turn a weakly, it gives the image I’m full of ****, or to a cautious player that I’m milking him which is bad, which let’s me get paid better on the river or gets me reraised on the turn. If he just flats the teaser and a non-club comes and he checks, it sets up the context of a big river bluff as he’s shown weakness on the last 2 streets while I could very easily have a high club that blanked and am repping a bluff. Good players won’t fall for it, bad players sometimes will.

If we raise here, only some sets, straights, flushes, and straight flushes will likely continue. Also, we’ve announced the strength of our hand in an indelible way and opponent will likely mark the remainder of the hand with cautious play versus us. With that said, we’ve gotten a substantial bet out of sets, charging the draw as it were, and straights.

I am not confident in my suggestions tbh.

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I like raising smallish here to set up a shove on the turn.

The board is coordinated enough that a lot of hands are going to pay us off – paricularly the straights and sets – but they’ll slow down / fold if a disaster 4th club hits on the turn.

I’m reraising the turn because I want those hands to either shove flop or check/call the turn for most if not all of their stack. Essentailly, I’m repping a semibluff, and forcing them to put more money in with their biggest 2nd best hands.

Especially since you’re seen as an agressive player, I think this is the right move.

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correction. i meant “reraising the flop”

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To me, the problem here is that there are 17 cards I do not want to see come out. Those cards being the remaining 8 clubs that will kill my action and the 9 remaining 4,5,6′s that might fill my opponent up. (Although someone is going to correctly point out that if my opponent does have a set, there are only 7 remaining; but if my opponent has K2 I still don’t want to see a 4,5,6 regardless.)

The check-raise is interesting because I think a set and a flopped straight would normally lead into this board. I don’t think hero is up against a straight flush as the BB would be happy to keep everyone in with that big a monster. Perhaps the check-raise happened because hero has been hammering at a lot of pots from position.

If I had to guess, I would put the BB on a strong draw (perhaps 7cX), a set, top two pair, a baby flush (hey, it can happen) or a flopped straight. Presuming that the graphic and not the staff are correct, we need to call 1700 into 4550. An interesting bet size by the BB there that I would like to hear someone analyze. Now to the options:

Fold: Horribly nitty. If you flop the flush (about 1%) and can only think about how you might lose to the straight flush, poker is not for you.

Call: You disguise the strength of your hand and 30 out of the 47 cards that can hit the turn are “blanks.” You also keep two people in so that if a blank hits, you can make them pay from position. If one of the 17 scare cards hit, however, you have to have the discipline to get a read on your opponents and lay it down. Also, you have 2 live opponents so far, so taking 2 players on a sort of draw to the turn might be a bad idea.

Raise: You could get someone to make a mistake and take their whole stack. Also, you can let the villain make the bad call and get it in behind instead of you having to make that decision on the turn. You also don’t give the SB amazing odds to call and you build the pot with the ace high flush. Now it appears that hero has the naked Ac, set, two pair etc. and might get the straight, baby flush or set to pay hero off big with very few outs. I think this is what I would do. Make it a call + 6k (you could pop it to 8k to put the BB all-in) more for 7700 total that might seem like an over-bet with the naked Ac.

Finally, if you do get it all-in on the flop/turn and villain has the straight flush, too bad. It’s too hard to get a read online to lay down 2nd nuts most of the time (I’m presuming that villain would not play 73c or 23c in a raised pot pre-flop, which might be incorrect).

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What happened to the what happened?

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It was a tough decision between calling and raising because it really depends on the opponent. I chose raise based on the buyin limit $25 and I’d like to take a shot a taking his whole stack. Another reason I’d raise is there’s a good chance he could have trips and be shooting for a boat or a King hi club draw or maybe getting too agg with a made or drawing to the straight. Visit my poker blog at http://donkeyherder.livejournal.com

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sorry about the table, fixed now

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I like a raize here, we get value from a lot of hands. Str8s, Underflushs, Sets, 2 pair… Pair+Fd. etc. pp.

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Call.

A raise here makes the SB fold. I’ll take my chances of the 7 outs that beat me (boat) on the turn.

Calling also allows the BB to lead the turn.

If a club turns, i’m hoping one of the blinds makes their flush and I’ll get paid when i make a 1/4 sized bet on the end. Plus I got the extra call from the SB on the flop.

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Voted raise. I’m with Z, plus throw-in the agg image and we have a better chance of maximizing the hand’s value.

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Calling disguises our strength a lot better

Plus it’s very easy to assume that the blinds are holding at least 2 clubs. So subtract those outs to the ones that either beat us or kill the action…

Calling allows extracts at least one more SB call, and most likely a BB lead on the turn.

Raising ends the hand right there, as Loki said, a set or 2 pair would have lead the flop.

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Im calling for the reasons Jeff mentioned…we entice the small blind to stay in the hand, and allow the BB to lead out to protect his investment on the turn.

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Just keep raising and hope that someone has a set or a straight

Yeah being agro means you’ll make a lot of stuff fold, but so what, you could make this a monster 200bb pot and right now you basically have the nuts

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Raise. I have an aggressive image already. Why not take advantage of that to keep pushing that image? My hand is tough to beat. I feel very confident, so I am going to push my opponent to back up his raise which he may very well do just to try and save face. If he folds then I still have a nice pot and I never had to show cards. Thus I maintain a mysteriously aggressive image which is always a tough image to play against.

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A note to the DHQ staff. How about a little feedback on these quiz questions? It would be nice to hear from some pros or expert players on how they would handle the situations presented. It would make an already good feature that much more attractive. Or even better, present actual hands and the actual outcomes so we can see if the strategy that we selected was the correct one. Best yet, do both.

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This hand’s all kinds of weird.

What hands minraise here, with the absolute certainty of getting at least a call? Straight flushes would probably flat, sets + straights raise more. This leaves big clubs hoping to get a cheap turn by scaring you, and misclicks.

Given that, I call as if I’m scared or drawing, then bet the turn unless the board pairs, which leaves me playing pot control.

This also lets the SB in, who is probably drawing dead (or has the nuts, but you can probably avoid stacking off in that situation).

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I was typing my reply and read Brian’s. Agreed. Aggressive image helps the most when you play against type. A weak call here suggests little more than a continuation bet that wasn’t going to run from a min raise. Great position to let others build the pot. And I’m not worried about a paired board. BB, maybe a litte, but I got two more cards to get more info and I’m not playing a nut flush scared.

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You’ve got to be cautious with this flop. Any player could’ve had a straight flush, however the odds of this happening is extremely low. I’d suggest a medium raise to keep the players in the game, if not just a slow-played call to make the opponents think you’ve got a draw instead of a flopped flush.

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