Heads-up Hand To Talk About

Three-man 'tournament', everything to the winner. 6000 in chips. Heads-up, pretty even stacks.


Blinds 20-40

I'm dealt Ac4c, and raise the pot, 120 total. My opponent re-raises the pot, 240 to me. I re-raise 720, hoping to push him off a slightly better Ace, a low pocket pair or even a worse hand like KQ, KJ. I've got about 1500 left, my opponent have about 2500 (before he has called). He thinks for a while, then calls (personally, I would almost always fold or re-raise all-in here, but my opponent is a good player and this is just his way of handling a raise sometimes).


Flop 9-8-7, one club. My opponent checks, I check.


Turn: 6c, giving me the nut flush draw. My opponent checks, I bet all-in, 2/3's of the pot. My opponent thinks for a long while before he mucks, claiming to have had AK.


lars

Trouble with playing your hand that way pre-flop is that you have created such a big pot pre-flop that an unpaired Ace-better kicker is going to have a hard time letting it go. But your opponent made what I think was a huge mistake in folding AK if he did have one.

I like the idea of checking the flop and betting the turn. AK must call on an unimproved flop here given good odds, unless he strongly suspects you have a set or AA/KK (in which case he should have folded preflop). By waiting for the turn, he is put to a decision to call with no pair and one card to come, or fold and save valuable chips.


I hate his call preflop. Allin or allout i say.

You had a few extra outs this hand you might not have realized(or at least didn't mention), a 5 gives you your inside straight. Also feel AK should go allin preflop.

No, a 5 or T puts the straight on the table. He will certainly call with a straight. Against AK, I have 12 outs and 8 split cards, equally so against QQ & KK. Not bad, if I get called.


lars