Daily Hand Quiz

Bet 2.6K.

It’s a blocking bet.

The button’s bet on a monotone flop doesn’t mean much. I think almost anyone bets in that spot with any two cards.

This is certainly supported by how he slows down on the turn.

I think we can reasonably represent having a decent heart here given our check-call on the flop.

I bet here basically because I think my hand has some showdown value given the way the hand has been played.

I go with the blocking bet because I think my opponent is capable of betting half pot or more as a bluff here if checked to and I don’t think we have the equity to call that big a bet.

I hesitate to throw out a bigger bet in an attempt to fold our opponent out. Its debateable a bigger bet has any more fold equity.

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Pete Reply:
October 2nd, 2009 at 10:57 am

“I bet here because I think my hand has some showdown value”

Read tomorrow’s post for folding because I think I have the best hand and next week sometime for pushing all in because I think my opponent has the nuts

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black fair Reply:
October 3rd, 2009 at 2:41 am

lol. I want to get to showdown cheaply – hence blocking bet.

all you do is bitch about the question and/or my comments.

its unfortunate that someone so clever as you is never generous enough to post the correct play with a detailed analysis

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Pete Reply:
October 3rd, 2009 at 8:54 am

The reason is that the answer to the question often depends on more detailed player reads or is just simple maths and has usually been answered correctly already by someone else. Your suggested play isn’t always wrong, but your reasoning is nearly always poor. Let’s just say for a minute that a “blocking bet” is the way to go. Are you hoping to be called by worse hands? In this case it is a value bet. Are you hoping to fold out better hands? In this case it is a bluff. From what you are saying it sounds like it is the former. You are hoping to be called by worse. You are also hoping that if you bet your opponent will never raise as a bluff. So effectively you are trying to make a play that will yield value and also cause your opponent to unbalance his play by only raising his top hands and never bluffing. If you had stated this clearly then I would have thought that you had no idea how an unknown $50 tournament player is likely to play, but at least what you were saying made sense within your player reads. I don’t think you even fully understood what you were suggesting about your opponent’s tendencies though.

Betting basically seems bad because I can’t see our opponent calling with worse or folding with better. The only real reason to bet would be in the hope that this would mess up our opponent’s ranges to the point where he’s either only raising for value (as suggested by blackfair) or raising such a tight value range that he’ll end up bluff-raising too much, which we can exploit by picking off his raises with our pair of queens. Personally I think the latter scenario is far more likely, as a weak bet like this is going to seem weak and provoke a raise. So if I bet this flop then I’m calling a raise over the top. Against a less aggressive opponent I would be more inclined to check and fold to a bet, knowing that he’s going to check behind worse hands often enough to make this play reasonable.

With this combination of weird lines and no player reads there’s no definitively correct answer here. That doesn’t mean you can’t give logical reasoning though

Agree w/ reasoning above as played, but why on earth would we limp-call pre, check-call that flop and worse, check that perfect brick of a turn????

Are we trying to let villain catch up?

This deep I make it around 1200 pre, make a standard c-bet for value on that flop, and follow up on a great turn card.

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Lead – $3.1K. Use the TAG image and rep the flush. Play this strong and don’t let the v bluff us out here. V could have tried to deceive with the turn-check, but most of the time would bet in that spot. Fold to a r-r.

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Where’s the option for “play the hand completely differently”? That’s what I vote for.

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catcher Reply:
October 2nd, 2009 at 1:36 pm

I second this. Raise PF, failing to do this lead the flop. Failing to do this, check-raise flop. Failing to do this, lead the bricked turn.

However, having ended up where we are, blocker bet and folding to a raise is probably the most sensible option.

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Its either check-fold or bet-fold, and Id rather turn my hand into a bluff since our line is relatively believable. Im probably betting something like 5.2k which is the type of bet that is a generic and indistinguishable bet. Could be valueish, could be bluffing, could be playing the 10 of hearts. I want the villain to play his hand here since he wont be able to deduce much from the bet. I think small hearts fold to this bet, as opposed to a bet thats too small where the 5 of hearts might just look you up. I know I might.

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The big problem here is that hero has played the hand in a manner that has given him absolutely no information about his opponent’s hand. That said, the way the hand was played by hero would look a lot like a flush draw to an opponent. This should slow villian down to a certain extent unless he has the A, J or possibly the 10 of hearts. With weaker hearts or overpair he is checking behind. I voted check fold and if villian has got the rocks to bluff hero out here then it’s hero’s fault for putting himself to a difficult decision. Raise pre, lead or check raise flop!

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why you u limped, didn’t bet or raise on the brick and u gave away a free card that may have unnecessarily cost you the pot. You have to lead and if u r beat, you’ll find out fast. fold if RR and consider yourself lucky.

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Why do we keep getting hands on here that involved open limping preflop? You can be a very successful player without ever doing this, which is probably true of most people who read this. All these situations are ones that will never arise for most of us, so seem kind of pointless and irrelevant.

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samo2 Reply:
October 2nd, 2009 at 11:53 am

I look at this hand as one of hundreds played during a session. Perhaps the hero is trying to vary their play in this specific hand vs. this villain.

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__X__ Reply:
October 5th, 2009 at 8:42 am

True, but in a $50 tourney you don’t need to vary your play that much. Generally, the optimal play will be best, and you don’t need to get too tricky against these players.

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