A hand

[Jason Strasser]

$200 sng on party. Getting back into the swing. I am very interested in hearing thoughts about this hand, as I think I played it well, but I'm not sure.

It is level II, 15/30 blinds, 8 handed. One wild/crazy/typical lucky big stack type player who plays very poorly on all streets has a 3k stack, everyone else has 1k. It limps around (4 limpers) to the SB, who is the crazy man, and he min raises to 60, which means absolutely nothing in my book. I reraise to 200 with red jacks.

One limper calls, and of course the crazy man calls. Flop:

KT9, the king and the 9 are hearts. Crazy man checks, I check, limper checks.

Turn: 4h.

Crazy man bets 425. I call (leaving me with 350 or so left), limper folds. River 2h. He pushes me in for my last 350, I call.

Thoughts?

[William Wilson]

Did you consider a good-sized bet on the flop here? That's my move.

As for the call, I think you have to make it, no matter how much it hurts.

[ethan]

preflop - good.

flop - I presume the check is to get crazy man to bet into you on the turn, as well as seeing what the limper's going to do. Once the limper checks behind you're just about certain you're ahead, right? I'm curious what you figure the limper has at this point. If he puts in a reasonable bet on this flop it's entirely possible he's protecting a better made hand than yours, the check'd make it seem he has a pair < 99 or maybe something like A /images/graemlins/heart.gifQo that'd be content seeing another card. This isn't exactly a flop that'd encourage slowplaying.

Also, with it checked through I don't think anyone has a flush draw. AQ /images/graemlins/heart.gif will likely bet this flop, QT /images/graemlins/heart.gif is a real longshot to be here and probably would too. If "crazy" man has any two then I suppose it could be a flush draw, but I'm basically just not worrying much about what he has.

turn - Choosing between a call and a raise, I can't imagine you want to invite the limper along to the river. A flat-call gives the A /images/graemlins/heart.gif odds (barely) to see the last card, and a push doesn't. Other than that, I don't see any hand the limper could have where your choosing one over the other would make him play it differently. If the limper calls, do you fold the river?

Whether you push or call here, 775 of crazy man's chips are going in the middle between the last two streets. Calling here just means you may just have to make a slightly ugly call on the river if, say, the 4 /images/graemlins/heart.gif comes. On the other hand, if you push your other 350 here, I don't think anyone accurately described as "crazy man" is going to fold. You're not flat-calling to leave yourself the opportunity to fold, right?

...this rambling is leading me to the conclusion that I like pushing the turn, but I don't particularly mind the call. I just don't want to face the possibility of the limper calling on the turn, then having to decide whether to call all-in on a river heart before he acts. Any other river card is a call for me even with the limper, and anything's a call if the limper folds the turn.

river - You do have enough chips left to fold and come back (with a little luck), but I'd think you're ahead here way too often to do that.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the way you played it. I'm not entirely sure how I'd handle a couple things if the limper played differently, though. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on how he affects the hand.

[rybones]

perhaps my analysis is too simple, but you have the third nut. How many times in life have you wanted to have a third nut? I like the checking at this level. I would definately call imo. anyhow, hope you won it.

Ryan

[imcastleman]

Are you sure this guy is crazy? Or is he just getting run over by cards? It is only level 2 and he has already tripled up. Does the guy have any brain at all? What is the purpose of the minimum raise? To me, if it was a decent player, it looks like a hand they want to play and want some value out of but don’t want to lose too much if they don’t hit, middle pocket pair or suited connector or maybe even AK. AK has been troublesome for me from the small blind and so I think a min-raise is a pretty nice play from here.

But, okay, let’s assume the guy could have anything:
This is a perfect example of why you should bet the flop and also why jacks are very tough to play. You need to have some information about the guy who is in late position. It is not at all unlikely that the crazy guy has any suited king here and you have position on him if limper folds.

I’d bet 200 on the flop. If the limper calls, I check the turn and fold to any more bets. If the limper folds and crazy calls, then you can check the turn and hope he doesn’t bet big on the river. If he does, I say fold and get his chips later on in the tournament.