$40-$80 Stud Hand To Talk About

Here's a hand a friend played recently and we later had quite a debate about it. See what you think.


Full table, $5 ante. The 6c brings it in for $10, all pass to my friend who is in late position with split Kings. He raises it to $40, the bring-in calls. Now: I am leaving out the other upcards because my friend only tends to remember them if they seem to impact something. So just assume they were nothing special to the play of this hand.


4th street: the Kings catch nothing special, the 6c catches the 8s. Kings bet and are called.


5th Street: Kings again catch nothing much, opponent catchs 7s so his board is 6c 8s 7s. First question: do you bet in this spot if you hold the Kings? Well, the Kings did bet and were raised. Kings called.


6th Street: Kings still fail to improve, opponent catches another 6 to pair his doorcard so the board the Kings are facing is now 6c 8s 7s 6d. The open 6's lead. Second question: do you call here if you hold the Kings?


7th Street: Kings still fail to improve. Open sixes bet. Third question: do you call here with the Kings?


Results to follow, all comments welcome; especially interested in the reasons why you would choose certain actions on each street. Again assume no especially significant other upcards and assume an average opponent. Thanks everyone and merry Xmas.

In the above example, the Kings were facing a board on 5th street of 6c 8s 7s. Let's assume the board was slightly different, as follows in three examples:


a) 6c 7s 8s (cards fell in perfect sequence)


b) 6c Jc Qc (flush board)


c) 6c 8s As (a live Ace fell)


Do any of the above scenarios significantly change your choice of preferred actions when holding the Kings? If so, why? Again assume that there are not a lot of dead cards which significantly impact the hand.

Your friend should have reraised on fifth, the only other option being to fold if he has a good enough read on the opponent to know the opponent has trips or a made straight.


Calling is just totally yucky here. Your friend gave away his whole hand. He announced that he couldn't beat two pair.


He needs to reraise to (a) plant the fear of a bigger two pair, in case the opponent is on a smaller two pair, which will often be the case; (b) punish the opponent in case opp. is bluffing or semibluffing, as will also often be the case; (c) send a message that he won't back down to a raise on 5th just because someone has junky straight cards showing.


TRLS

And I thought the Kings should have check-called on 5th.


I'm guessing that if the opponent has a pair and an open-end straight draw (or flush draw), the opponent is the favorite at this point, as he is with 2-pair, and he even could have the straight already made. If the Kings check, the single bet will almost surely go in anyway.


I like your idea if the opponent has merely one pair and no good draw, but in my experience they often have more than that with this type of board. If the opponent has 2-pair I certainly don't want to be putting in 3 bets on 5th. To make things even less favorable, the Kings must likely act first on 6th street.


Also, I kind of like the idea of letting the opponent take over the betting in case he might decide to try to bluff or semi-bluff the hand all the way through and I can snap him off.


So those are the reasons I favor check-calling on 5th in this spot.

Hello,M,

Your friend's opponent thinks that your friend is on a steal. He decides to call with split 6's. Once he pairs his doorcard,your friend's opponent has trip 6's.


Sitting Bull

Hello,M,

If opponent bet when the "A" popped up,he now has A's and 6's. He was playing a split pair of 6's with an "A" in the hole.


Sitting Bull

Another factor that tends to make me want to check and call with the Kings on 5th is that the opponent can easily catch a scary card on 6th--a 4 straight on board, pairing his doorcard, etc.

I'm not crazy about check-calling either, but it's not anywhere near as bad as betting then calling a raise, which was what I was objecting to. Anytime you bet on fifth, you had better be prepared to either fold or reraise if you're raised. If you're not prepared to do one or the other, you should almost never be betting in the first place, the exception being when you yourself have a strong drawing hand.


I don't like checking because I don't want to risk giving up a free card when an opponent has a three-straight and a 2-flush showing. There are just too many cards in the deck that could give him a hand or a bunch of draws to beat me.


But a lot depends on the opponent of course. There are players you could check-call against. But I don't think it's ever right to bet-call in this situation.


TRLS

I think with a 5$ ante, I might fold 5th, and efinitely would not bet.


Betting on 5th is bad unless you have someone who can possibly fold here (which is unlikely). But almost no one with draw will fold here, and if he has almost any of draw of note (like a pair and flush draw, a pair and a straight draw, a straight draw and a 3 flush) the kings are an underdog!!


And on the slight chance the scary board is made the K's are drawing pretty thin.


I feel things would chance drastically if the ante was 10$ as opposed to 5$.