world series poker hand

This hand is from 1500 dollar buy in tourney. I was playing rather tight for about 3 hours when the following hand came up. I had 1700 in chips which was about the average stack.


I brought in it with the two and have not looked

at my cards untill the action got back to me and I was expecting some kind of garbage hand but here is what I found


3rd street:


(2,2) 2 ME!!!!


There was already a raise by the jack a call by another person and a reraise by the queen in the last position. I was considering reraising here but I figured that I do not want to show the strength just yet as they will all call anyway and I probably won't lose anyone plus I have many more options later on.


On 4 th street


Player with Queen is high and bets I call jack calls and the other person folds. Pretty much all of us caught bricks so I still felt good about my hand.

On fifth player with jack showing caught king and checks and Player with queens fires again into the pot. I raise! This is a good time to raise as I was expecting to get it heads up against probable pair of Queens plus the pot was already really big. To my suprise Player with Jack calls and the queen folds.

His board looks like that


XX, Js, 9d, Ks


Since he had a lot of chips he was playing rather loose so I was almost 100% sure that he had no straight but 4 flush or 2 pair is what I put him on. My board was rather weak so he probably thought that he is not that far behind.


On 6th he catches 4 of spades . I still decided to bet here because I did not like to give him the free card in case that he had no flush as many of the spades were shown early and even if he had the flush I still had the outs the outs to beat him.

He only called.


On the river I didn't improve and I bet one more time this time of course i got raised and lost to the flush . Any comments are aprreciated


BIGSTU

Stu,


I think I would have played the hand exactly as you did, up until the river. Before the river, the only play that was even questionable was not re-re-raising again on 3rd, but for the reasons you gave I agree it was the right decision.


On the river (depending how live your kickers are--you did not say), I might have considered checking in the dark (I know a lot of people don't like that play, but I think this is the ideal spot for it). The pot is already huge, you save yourself 1 BB if you don't fill up and he made his flush, and you will probably get 2 BBs from him if you do fill up (I've never played in the WSOP, but most of the players I play against would not throw away a flush for 1 more BB when the pot is big). Your downside is that you might miss out on 1BB if you fill and he checks. If the pot is already big, that might be a more desireable way to go.


I don't think your play was bad, I've been known to make the same play in a very similar situation, I just might have considered doing as I stated above instead.


How did you fare in the tournament?

I liked your reasoning on everything except for your river bet. I do like waiting until the big bets to rasie. You must have had an ace up for you to be high or did he check to you on 6th and 7th?

I think that you should have played fast from the get go. You'll get at least the Q along for the ride probably and don't mind knocking someone out, increasing your overall chances of winding up best. Particularly in a tournament situation, I think I'd make a distinction between the way I'd play baby roll ups and big ones. Much safer with big 3 of a kind. In a ring game I might slowplay a baby roll up in the manner you did.


jmho


G

one thing i would say about teh third street play is that even by calling in this position some players will put you on trips. but if you raise then they might think you have aces. obviously these are better players than in teh 10-20 games i play so i suppose this reasoning may not be valid.


also on fourth street i probably would have raised. this is not a spot to limp and try to trap some bets. you are better off just taking what was there in the pot, since even if there is a 20% chance you will lose if they all call this is too high, so you probably should raise.


Pat

Yeah I caught the ace on the 6th and I was high.

I still feel like the raise on 5 th is the way to go even though many argue that you should raise right away but by doing so you are almost announcing your hand and people will still call you. By calling there I can see how the hand develops and try to pick the best strategy on the next streets. When I think about this hand over and over , I realize that I was huge favourite on the 5 th street and it was only heads up hand but its poker and just because you are favourite does not mean that you have to win it. As far as the river play goes then I do not check blind on the river and after looking at my last card maybe I should have checked and save myself 1 bet but that loose player really had me confused as to why he did not raise on the 6th


BIGSTU

Check the river after failing to improve.


No raise could possibly be good for you.

I would always value bet trips here expecting to get called by two-pair many more times than I'll be raised by a hand that beats me.

Both reraising on 3rd and waiting to raise on 5th are viable ways to play the hand. I don't think one play is substantially better than the other.


On a side note, I always look at my hole cards before the action gets to me. I do this so that I can quickly see if the cards I need to improve my hand are live. For example, if I hold (Jc,Kc)2c, I'm obviously looking for clubs and Kings in this particular hand.

Dynasty,


I thought it was interesting that you posted that you look at your cards b4 action got to you.


I always do the exact opposite. I feel this allows me to better remember exposed cards and to study opponents reactions to their own cards better.


Later,

CJ

I do bring it in for the minimum blind everytime I'm the low card. But, as soon as my chips are in the pot, I quickly look at my hole cards. I'd hate to look down and see a pocket pair of 6's and then not remember if there was a 6 exposed on 3rd street. By looking immediately, I would know to look for any 6's.


BTW, I have once held a small/medium pocket pair (I now forget which) when I was low card and was unable to look at my hole cards until several players had folded on 3rd street. I got to see 4th street for free. However, when somebody bet on 4th, I felt compelled to fold because I did not know if my trip cards were live.

Big stu

I had the same situation happen to me in a stud final table. It was three handed with a J, A and me with wired 6's. I played my hand like you did with just about the same results and lost to a boat. Replaying it in my mind I would have rather raised from 3rd street and made them think if I was holding AA6 or 666.

The strategy from your position is to accumulate chips whereas mine should have been to preserve them.

In your situation, there is only one way to play the hand and you did it. maximizing your chip potential.

Even in a tournament?


I would lean towards value betting these trips in a live action game, but in a tournament would probably check and call.


In either instance I would bet the full house.

I only play in ring games.