Daily Hand Quiz

Due to stack size differential I’d check. A Hero lead is vulnerable to a loose V RAI on a draw. If they are indeed drawing, our hand will likely hold-up so I would control pot-size on both the turn and river.

If V has something like 98, a bet will likely be called. Let’s check, keep control of pot-size and see if we get lucky on the river.

If the river is checked, I’d check through. If V leads, I’d fold.

I’d play a J turn the same way.

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Villain’s range is huge — small PP; connectors with a straight draw, or a flush draw. Maybe even overcards if he just likes to play everything. Conceivable set. We’re ahead against a lot of that but not all of it.

We could certainly check and try to play small ball — hoping for check/check on the river. If we check the turn, though, we’re conceding control of the hand. Any river card other than an A or K could help him, and if he bets the river, we’ve got a difficult decision to justify a call.

I voted to bet the turn (hard), mostly on the basis of stack sizes. Our play so far is consistent with 99+. We’ve got Villain seriously out-chipped – and we can force him to decide whether this hand is the place where he wants to risk his tournament life. If we bet 3000 or so (2/3 pot), we’re representing serious strength and daring him to go broke on this hand. He has to assume that even an all-in response won’t shake us. I think that gives us a very good chance of folding out a small PP or many of the decent draws. The blinds are still low enough that he can let go and regroup.

Betting here is obviously a riskier line. But even if it goes wrong, it’s not fatal to us. And we’re at the stage of the tournament where we should be beating up on the small stacks to keep accumulating chips. This feels like exactly the sort of situation where we should be getting to work.

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I like continuation bets, here. If I check the flop, I check the turn and river. If I raised the flop, I raise the turn and river.

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