Daily Hand Quiz

I’m going to bet here. Its a semi-goofy board and we need more information. First: The first 2 checks mean nothing. if we check, the button is going to bet, which isn’t going to tell us anything, and we’re going to have to call, and we will go to the turn 1 more bet deep into it and still not knowing anything than we knew before.

Instead lets put out a feeler bet here and see whos for real. If I get only 1 caller, I will evaluate. If I get 2 callers or more than we are pretty much done with the hand, as we are drawing to basically 1 out to improve with the flush draw stealing one. There’s a good chance we are ahead here, but we need to find out. I’m pretty sure no one has 56. The only thing we are losing to right now is any Q or a poorly played JJ+ hand. Time to find out whos got the Q or who’s chasing.

The hard part about this is that it’s such a juicy pot compared to all the stack sizes, so its hard to want to get away from it right so easily. It sucks that our image is tight, and we still got 4 callers on our raise. The guy in seat C is so weak (Limp, call, check). The BB called cuz he was getting a good price, and probably whiffed. We need to find out why the button called. Time to fire. If I get only 1 caller, and the turn bricks, I think I’m going to fire again to make sure its the queen. If I get 2 callers, I’m probably done with this hand, because its very unlikely both of them are chasing a flush. We are ahead of a lot in this spot, but we need information and sooner rather than later before this pot gets too big.

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I forgot: it could be possible one of them came in with 44 or 77. But it isn’t reasonable. The first 2 checked, and even the most passive scared players would never take the chance to check and have their set go to the turn 4 handed with a flush draw on the board. No way not in a 75$ tournament. In a .25 center though, beware. If it turns out the button has the set, well that doesn’t matter because we were behind to begin with then and thats what our bet was designed to find out… if he r-r our bet, he probably has a set or a Q and he’s not joking. I’m heavily expecting the other 2 to fold to serious action, but still might call with a draw if they get the right price, and even doing so that is giving us the information we need. So that’s why I ruled out sets for the hands that are beating us. It always sucks paying to get information just to end up folding, but the little we toss in now, will save us huge amounts later on versus if we went to the river with a sack over our head. We still have 26 orbits left right now. Let’s not get stupid.

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check the flop with your tens. you would likely play the same if you held a queen. If the button tries to bet to take down the pot, call him for pot control. If he fires a healthy bet on the turn, you gotta throw the hand away.

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Any half decent button 3bets our cbet to which we must fold. We’re 4 way with a mediocre hand that may or may not be ahead, but will cost us a lot to get to showdown.

It’s pussy poker, but I’m almost certainly facing a raise from the button here.

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Jeff Reply:
June 22nd, 2010 at 7:25 am

check flop, lead turn if brick’d

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Based on our tight image, I’d lead for $450. I’m reluctant to do this into 3 opponents but believe it is the only shot we have to take a decent pot down.

We have no read on the button. If V is a half-decent player, checking will allow them to try and steal the pot. If the V is a weak player, our bet will fold them out.

The checks from EP don’t necessarily show weakness, and we’ll find out soon enough. I’d fold to a raise.

2nd question – normally I’d raise in this spot, but without a read I’ll just call, hoping the V is simply making a play.

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Have to lead here. It’s true that our bet may be seen as a standard c-bet and a smart player may r/r, but we really don’t know where we are in the hand right now and we’re not gonna find out anymore on the turn.
I’m betting around 2/3 pot – if we get raised, we’re either beat or outplayed, but I can get away from the hand. If called, I slow down unless I hit a set on the turn.

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Lead about 400-450.
This is a great flop for TT, it would be much worse if there were 3 overs. Players tend to play more straightforward in multiway pots, so it’s pretty likely, that none of the blinds have a Q. So we only have to fear the button. I think there’s a pretty good chance that we can take down the pot (which would be fine), or get called by worse (middle pair, draw) if we bet here.
On the other hand, against 3 opponents any turn card can be dangerous: 4 overs, another spade, and a lot of brick-looking cards that can fill in a SD, GS or make a random two pair.
So gotta bet for value and to protect your hand. Taking it down would be fine, if we get called we have to reevaluate the turn, but most probably we’ll try to check down the last two cards.
Checking the flop with the intention to bet the turn if checked around (and fold to a bet) is basicly playing our hand like a bluff – I’d likely play air that way. That can have some unpleasant consequences like getting raised and not knowing what to do, since if a competent player raises you on the turn he’ll have a polarized range. Our TT is strong but far not strong enough to withstand much pressure.

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First; our open preflop was apparently to t175, which seems way too small given the limp. We need to pump it up around 4x-5x to keep ourselves out of awkward spots like this. As such, with a player behind us, the quiz is asking us, if we check, are we calling the button bet? I agree with the check on the flop, and the button bet, even if it is wide, is going to force us to fold. So many cards on the turn make our hand incredibly vulnerable; spades, aces, kings, jacks, sevens, and we have a hand that, at best, we’re looking to invest one bet into the hand from flop to river. If he’s willing to bet the flop, there’s a good chance he’s going to fire again at some point in the hand. We lost this hand when we opened 2.9x preflop. Just let it go.

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