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Help get me out of this tricky spot!
This is a hand from the $800 NL this past weekend at Running Aces Poker in MN. 15/390 remain and payouts are relatively flat until the top 8.
V is a thinking semi-pro player who just won the Fall Poker Classic at Canterbury a few months ago. He is the toughest opponent at my table and, unlucky for me, on my direct left. I had limped most blind vs. blind situations, including the last orbit where I had AK (was planning to limp/raise) but he checked. I ended up winning the hand at showdown which only had 1 street of betting just as a FYI on some history between us.
10/20K/20K ante
We both started the hand with ~800KHero raises from SB to 65K with As 8c
V defends BBFlop (150K): Js 5s 4x
Hero bets 75K/ V callsTurn (300K): 9s
Hero checks/V bets 200K …I considered a C/R jam but ended up tank folding. Could have taken a different direction in just about every spot of this hand. Curious to hear what you would do differently and why?
p.s. V did show his hand but I will save the results after the debate 🙂
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1 Reply
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My thoughts on this. I like the preflop action. I think we can bet a little smaller on this flop, but I’m definitely betting and not that big of a difference. The Turn is where this hand gets interesting to me. I’d start my approach here with dividing up my flush draws. Which ones are betting and which ones are checking? I think we’re more incentivized to bet our non-nut flush draws, so our AsXs holdings are going to check this T a decent amount. I’ll definitely want to continue with some flushes, but I like the Kx etc flushes to lead with more on this board. Either way, I can confidently say I’m checking most of my made nut flushes back, and if you’d do the same, I really like your check here.
But now BB goes big. Really big for this spot. This very much feels like a go-away bet. It is either vulnerable value (most like Jx or sometimes sets of 4s or 5s) or a highish card spade (likely with some straight equity). I could be wrong, but I really don’t think a flush wants to go this big.
So if its true that we often check through our made nut flushes, and this has every bit the feel of a go-away bet, I’m not going away. Against certain opponents, I might call here and try to take it down on the river, against this go-away bet while holding the blocker to the nuts, I’m doing the exact opposite of what they want. They’re going to have to fold a huge portion of their range, possibly only calling with their sets and best Jx. My chips are in the middle.
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