Daily Hand Quiz

Check-call.

This is not a great card for us. We have showdown value at the moment but leading or check-raising turns our hand into a bluff and we don’t have any outs to fall back on against a hand willing to call us.

If our opponent checks through I’m going to lead the river if it bricks.

If our opponent bets the turn I’m likely to check-fold the river.

Thats the weakness with check-calling here in my opinion – with no read the river play becomes very hard if our opponent is willing to fire 2nd and 3rd barrels.

Calling the turn to check-fold most rivers is certainly not ideal and check-calling three streets with top pair weak kicker is not going to be profitable unless we are up against an opponent who will fire multiple barrels in position with air.

Ideally in this spot we check-call the turn, check-through the river, and find our queen is good.

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I think we are ahead and leading may be the most economic way to find out where we are at. If you think the v has a flush, then a check-fold is in order. A c-r is a more expensive route to get info and may not get the v to fold regardless. Checking also risks a free card to the v, who may be drawing with broadway, 10-9, or a spade. If the v raises, fold; if the riv bricks I’d lead.

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I wouldn’t usually lead with a flush here so I don’t like leading with our top pair so much. If we get action with a lead we’ll be in an ugly spot on the river; we’d most likely be behind but check/folding would be tough, as would firing a second bullet.

I like a check/raise a little better. It gives the villain the chance to bluff the flush, but more importantly it gives us a chance to rep the flush and push them off a better queen. It gives us a better chance of winning the pot by putting two bets in vs. check/calling the turn and check/calling the river.

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Pete Reply:
October 14th, 2009 at 7:19 am

Really? Surely we have too strong a hand to turn into a complete bluff? Don’t you think it’s better to play this more passively and save your check/raise bluff for something with no showdown value?

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John Kugelman Reply:
October 14th, 2009 at 7:58 am

I guess it’s a toss up between check/calling, check/raising, and check/folding for me. I just don’t like the lead, it’s like turning our hand face up.

We shouldn’t that line unless we’d also lead when we have the flush, or as a stone-cold bluff/semi-bluff (floating the flop out of position, stealing on the turn–a VERY unusual line). Never leading air or flushes would make our range severely unbalanced here.

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samo2 Reply:
October 14th, 2009 at 8:38 am

I could see leading with a small flush, protecting against a counterfeit river. I also don’t think the hero’s line is that unusual to lead. Call pre-flop raise oop; check-call flop oop; strong enough line imo to lead. Hero flopped top-pr 3-handed so a turn-lead could certainly fit.

Pete Reply:
October 14th, 2009 at 9:34 am

I was thinking along the same lines as you but without the check/raise option (so basically c/f or c/c). But now I think about it a little more, I actually quite like the lead, not so much with this hand but just in general. That turn is a terrible one for him to barrel and I think your range is probably stronger than his at the minute. That means he’s going to be checking behind a lot of turns. Obviously that makes leading with flushes and other strong hands much better than c/ring. If you also bet most of your medium strength hands (such as above) then your betting range is strong enough to also bet a bunch of draws and air.

I voted check-call. I’m actually not as afraid of our opponent flat calling us as others are. If I knew our opponent would only raise with made hands, I think leading might be good.

The problem I see is this: one of the first things I learned about aggression in short handed cash games was to test a lead-bettor early on, and I play smaller stakes than 5-10. I think we can rest assured 5-10 regs know about this. So here we have a situation with a scare card turn, and we lead bet into them. This is the perfect spot for them to test us, so their raising range is likely just as big as their double barreling range if we check it. In short, I don’t think leading defines our hand at all, so check-call is a good play for pot control with a decent showdown value hand.

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Looks like we are a decent favorite to be ahead right now, but there are a lot of holdings where v can suck out on us. Any Ax, Kx, Qx, Jx plus some draws like T9 or 1 spade holdings.

Folding is out of the question. Leading also looks like it won’t win any more but could lose more.

Out of the other 2 options, check-call is probably OK but I prefer check-raise. If re-raised you fold; if you get a call you’re probably ahead and can value bet the river.

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