10-20 hand at the Taj

I have normally been playing either 5-10 HE or 5-10 Omaha/8 but decided to take a shot at 10-20 HE last Saturday night.


After playing for about 10 minutes against a table full of opponents I've never seen before I pick up Ks Qs on the button. It's folded around to me and I raise. Only the SB calls. Other players had been making comments about watching out for this player's tricky moves and I saw him do a good job of extracting the maximum amount of money when he flopped quads.


The flop comes 10s 8s 4s giving me the second nut flush. The SB checks, I bet, he calls.


The turn is the Ah. The SB checks, I bet, he check raises. Could he have the Ace-high flush? I just call.


The river is a blank. The SB checks, I bet and he calls. I show the flush and and he shows me As 10c for two pair before he mucks.


My question is should I have reraised on the turn? Was I too timid just calling?

I think you played it correctly.

The question you need to ask yourself is what would you have done have done had he bet into you on the river. If the river does not bring another spade or pair the board you should raise for value.

Recently, I've been thinking about this problem of raising with the second nut hand because if somebody has a hand better than yours, it's also the nuts.


So a mistaken raise on your part almost guarantees a reraise.


Let's think about what your opponent has. For you to be ahead, he has to have the queen-high flush or worse. So now he check-raises you and you three-bet! What if he is a thinking player, and says, "Well, I have the queen-high flush. Does Chaos do that with a *jack*-high flush? Yikes." There is a microscopic chance that he'll lay down his smaller flush (though that would probably be a mistake). But he might fold if a fourth spade hits.


But if he's looking at the ace-high flush, then he thinks, "Hmmm - either I have Chaos drawing dead or he's got 10 outs. Either way, it's time to get more money in the pot." And you're looking at a re-re-raise. Yikes.


I like calling on the turn. Jack's question is very interseting - what do you do if the river is a blank and he bets? I'm not sure I could/would raise. He may have put *you* on the set, and he decided to do his gambling when there was no gambling to be done (i.e. wait and make sure the river didn't pair the board). If so, you're just going to be paying three BB's where you coulda paid one.


And if he's a hyper-strong player, he might actually lay down a set (or two pair) to a raise on the river. Not likely, but it could happen.


All said and done, I think I'd call.


Regards, Lee

In reply to Lee,

re: River.


I think most every decent player puts in a reraise witht the nuts on the turn. (make the set pay). I think you gotta raise the river. You are a favorite well over 60% of the time that your opponent calls.

Two bad things can happen if you reraise the turn:


1) Your opponent has the nuts and reraises you and you have to pay off the whole way.


2) Your opponent folds when he is drawing dead.


I think calling here is correct. You might encourage a bluff on the river, and if your opponent is ahead or draws out on the river, you save money.