Rocky river

SCENARIO ONE

	I like the pre-flop raise to isolate the weak player, and I’d be happy to do that with a far weaker hand than A-K suited

You are playing in a $1,000 event in Vegas and have just over double your starting stack with 22,000 at the 100/200/a25 level. Your nine-handed table is full of old nits, with a couple of young aggressive players who are betting the old guys off a lot of flops. There is one old guy who is getting frustrated with this and raises to 600 under the gun. You are in the cut-off with Q?-Q? and after a mid-position caller you re-raise to 1,800.

The old guy stares at you for a while before calling and the mid-position player follows suit. The flop comes J?-10?-8?. The old guy bets 4,000 into the 5,925 pot. The second caller quickly folds and you raise to 10,000. The old guy tanks before calling. The turn is the A? and he checks. You check behind. On the A? river he thinks for about 20 seconds and then shoves. Your move?

PRE-FLOP

I like the re-raise with Queens in position, although with two players already in the pot I may prefer a slightly bigger raise than the standard three times the previous bet.

FLOP

The flop is pretty good for our hand – no overcards and the addition of a straight draw, so when the old guy bets out I’d certainly raise it up. Judging by the bet size, I don’t think we’ve been out-flopped here, and I’m really happy to ship my whole stack into this pot. Betting out 4,000 into a re- raiser is either a very trappy bet with a monster, or a bet to find out where he’s at. As this old fella doesn’t seem that sophisticated a player, I’d go for the latter.

I think the raise to 10,000 on a board as dangerous as this is a little small, and with a very draw-heavy flop, I’d probably make it at least 12,000, or maybe just ship the lot in, trying to look a little weaker. By only making it 6,000 more into the 20,000 pot, we’re giving him too good a price to make a draw.

TURN

The Ace on the turn is obviously not ideal, although it does give us another straight draw. The second Ace on the river makes it less likely we’re facing a bullet, but it does bring the flush. Given our slightly lightweight raise on the flop, I think a better play would be to stick the rest in on the turn, not giving our opponent the price to make his draw. If he has caught the Ace we’ve got unlucky, but still

RIVER

By the river we’re left with a horrible decision with half our chips in the middle and the knowledge that we’re only really beating a bluff, and so the choice is either to make a crying call or start again, having done half our stack by not making big enough raises to get our opponent to fold.

SCENARIO TWO

You are playing in a GUKPT main event. It’s level six – blinds are 150/300/a25. You’ve been on the same table for six hours and the play has been generally loose-aggressive. There are three recognised pros at your table but you’ve been holding your own. You have around 13k from your original 10k and the average is about 14k.

Your own image is probably LAG as you have been raising with a lot of hands, mainly concentrating on two unknown players, both relatively tight. You are in early position (UTG+1) with K;-K? and you make it 900 to go. It folds round to the cut-off (one of the tight players) who minimum re-raises. The button and blinds fold, you raise again to 3,600 and he calls. The flop comes Q?-9?-6?; you stick in 4,000 and he calls. The turn is the 10?. You check, and he quickly does the same. The river is the 4?; you check, he puts you all-in. Do you call or fold?

PRE-FLOP

I like our pre-flop play in this hand, getting more than a quarter of our stack in with our pocket Kings.

FLOP

The flop bet is fine, and while the call from our opponent may signal that he has us beaten with pocket Aces or Queens, they are the only two hands we’re realistically losing to – and if he has one of them good luck to him.

TURN

We now have more than half our stack in, and when the 10 falls it’s time to shove the rest in. That way, we either pick up the pot there and then or find out the bad news that On the river it’s pretty standard that if we check he’s going to put us all-in, so a blocking bet of 2,500 or so may be a better move we’re drawing pretty thin. We need to bet here though as the board is full of draws, and we need to make our opponent pay to get there. One of the hands he could have is something like A?-K?, and a bet here may get him out.

RIVER

On the river it’s pretty standard that if we check he’s going to put us all-in, so a blocking bet of 2,500 or so may be a better move. Realistically though, we’ve got most of our stack in the middle and I’d probably make a crying call, hoping he is bluffing or has an A-Q type of hand.

SCENARIO THREE

You are in a £100 freezeout at a live casino. Your table is pretty tight, but there are a couple of good aggressive foes including the player two seats to your left. However, you have the biggest stack at your table, with 7,800 from your 2,000 starting stack, when the following hand comes up. Effective stacks are 5,000. You raise to 600 at the 100/200 level with A?-Q? and get a call by the good player and the big blind. On a K?-4?-J? flop the big blind checks, you check and the good player bets 1,000 into 1,900. The BB folds and you call. The turn is the 5?. You check (with the intention of calling) and he checks. On the J? river you check and he shoves. Should you call?

PRE-FLOP

The pre-flop raise with A-Q is pretty standard but with two callers, including someone I’ve tagged as a decent player who has position on me, I want to flop pretty big.

FLOP

I’ve caught a bit of it with a straight draw, and as the pre- flop aggressor I would prefer to take a stab at taking the pot down here with a bet of 1,200 or so. I think the check- call is far too passive and a pretty horrible play. Unless a 10 falls on the turn, I’m just bleeding chips away for nothing. A check-raise would also be an acceptable play against a good player in position who is trying to take the pot away.

TURN AND RIVER

I hate the intention of check-calling with Ace-high on the turn, but luckily enough we get to see the river for free. Once we miss our straight draw, there’s no way I would consider a hero call with Ace-high. I’m basically beating nothing and have no reason to think my Ace is good.

SCENARIO FOUR

You are playing in a $40 online tournament with 500 runners. The tournament has been going for about an hour and with some good TAG play you have built your starting stack to 7,500 at the 50/100 level. The guy on your left has been very aggressive and tricky post-flop and is one of the chip-leaders with a stack of 18,550.

A weak player limps under the gun for 100 and it is then folded to you in middle position with A?-K?. You raise to 400 and the aggressive player to your left calls. Everybody else folds, including the limper, and you see a flop of 9?-5?-2?. You fire out 650 and get called. The turn is the A?. You now lead out for 1,500 and again get called.

The river is an innocuous-looking 5?. You decide to value-bet and fire out another 1,500, only to see your foe shove all-in. You have 3,450 chips remaining. Do you call?

PRE-FLOP

I like the pre-flop raise to isolate the weak player who has limped, and I’d be happy to do that with a far weaker hand than A-K suited. With the tricky player coming in behind, however, the rest of the pot will play out very differently.

FLOP

Standard TAG play seems to have worked thus far, so the flop bet is fine. Once I’m called, however, I’d shut down a bit, even though I hit one of my cards on the turn.

TURN

My opponent could easily have me drawing dead with a flopped set, so I’d much rather check to call on the turn.

RIVER

I’d probably check again then make a decision whether or not to call based on an assessment of my opponent’s hand. Having bet the flop he could have an overpair to the 9 which he still thinks is good. However, if he is tricky enough to have called with a wide range pre-flop, he could have hit a set or even two pair that has now housed up.