Daily Poker Quiz: Archive

But they were suited! #2
2008-07-22

You're in a WPT tournament. It's the first level and everybody still has huge stacks.

Four players limp to you on the button. You have 9 6 and raise to 200. Three of the limpers call, but neither of the blinds.

The pot is 950 and the flop comes A 8 7. The first limper bets 600 and both of the others call!

You have 7k left, your opponents have between 8k and 10k. How should you react?





Fold
No, no, no, no, no. You have an open-ended straight flush draw in position with plenty of pot odds AND implied odds. Folding here is the worst move by far.

Call
No, no, no, no, no. You have an open-ended straight flush draw in position with plenty of pot odds AND implied odds. Calling here is very wrong, even though one of your opponents may very well have a flush draw.

Raise all-in
This is an obvious raising opportunity, open-ended straight flush draws don't exactly grow on trees, and your opponents don't seem to mind paying off, either. But what'll happen if you raise all-in?

The pot will be 9,750, and it'll cost 7,000 to call. Which hands will do that so early on, with so deep stacks? Your opponents may very well believe you have pocket aces, the way you have played this far. Even a set of eights or sevens may fold to a raise this huge. The only hand you can be sure of will call you - although most likely nobody has it - is the pocket aces, a holding you have about 40 % chance against.

So in practice, you'll raise the hands you wan't to get called by away, winning a pot of 2,750. This is by no means bad, but come on - don't you want more? :)

Raise to 2,000 (correct)
Since the first bet came from the first player, the other two have been sandbagged already. If you raise here, the first bettor may very well come over the top, and you'd very much like that with an open-ended straight flush draw. Regardless of what he does, you'll get a lot of money into the pot at great odds. You definitely want to raise - the question is how much, and I find that to 2,000 is a good choice.



Result:

Fold 3%
Call 51%
Raise all-in 12%
Raise to 2,000 33%

Totally 992 vote(s)