WSOP circuit event hand analysis question

I just finish watching this week wsop circuit event that was aired on ESPN. One particular hand got me scratching me head so I hope you guys can give me some insight about this hand. This is also a 4 part question so here it go.

Question 1

One player raised in early position. Then player A picked up pocket kings and re-raise. Player B who is a pretty tight player picked up pocket queens with one diamond and decides to just call. The original early raiser now folds. The flop was A,A,8 with two dimonds. Now if you were player A and is first to act what would you do in this situation?

Question #2

In the real life situation Player A actually checked and Player B bet about $40,000 with the average chip stack at about $200,000. Please remember that player B is a realtively tight player. Now what should Player A do if he has about an average stack of chips?

Question 3

The third question is what if Player A decides to take the lead and bet $40,000 after the flop. Then what is the correct play for Player B to make?

Question 4

The last question is should player A took the lead to bet out at the pot instead of checking to player B and giving him the advantage of making a bet?

I know that this is a pretty long question. But it is a question that I can't seem to figure out the right answer to so I hope some of you good hold'em player can give me some of your opinions on this matter. Thanks

1. Bet the pot. If called be cautious from here on out. If raised fold. (of course all of this is subject to change according to stack size and other factors)
2.Tough spot. Should have bet to begin with. I could make a case for every option here, folding, calling or raising.
-Unless you have a good read you have to respect the bet and fold.
-You very well may have the best hand. Call and hope to dissuade your opponent from further bluffing(probably the worst option)
-Raise. If your opponent doesn't have the A they fold and you win. If they call be cautious from here on out. If they re-raise you fold and probably save some chips had you just called and then felt priced into calling further bets. You also can be pretty sure he has the A now so you can easily fold to any future bet.
3.Player B situation would be the same a player A's in situations 2.
4. Yes.

[Yawkey]

I also saw this hand and cringed, but then again I had the full benefit of seeing the K's had the best hand. If I were in the same situation, I would like to think I would play those K's a bit more agressively, leading off on the flop as you suggest in question 4. Then again, put yourself in their shoes (I'm pretty sure the magician wasn't in this hand), this is the first final table at any major b&m event for these guys. It's still very early at the final table, I think only one guy was out here, and they are dealing with life changing amounts of money. The guy with the K's is first to act and only one type of card will prevent him from moving all in after the flop. Sure enough two A's pop up, I'm not so sure I could make that bet under the circumstances.

Now one way it certainly could have played was the way the first hand of last weeks episode played (Ivey's 99 vs. 1010, flop was something like 444). 1010 was first to act, bet about the pot, Ivey calls, turn comes rag, 10's check, Ivey goes all in to steal the pot. Had Ivey not gotten tired/bored and hung on for the win, that would have been one of my favorite episodes (Annie Dukes win over Phil H. in the tourney of champs still my favorite).

Question 1: "Now if you were player A and is first to act what would you do in this situation?"

I would probably raise. If I know player B to be a tight player, I would not put him on A-x here. He probably would not have called preflop with that, and he would have raised with AA. He may have something like AK, or AQ, but right now I'd be putting a tight player on a medium to high pocket pair. I'd want to win the pot now, but I wouldn't mind a call, since I'm pretty sure I'm ahead. If my opponent re-raised, I would have a tough decision. If he raised a little, I would fold, putting him on an ace. If he went all-in, I would probably call, but I might fold if I was out-chipped. An all-in would seem like a bluff, trying to represent an ace. Most opponents would make a small bet with an ace, so an all-in is less scary then a small bet. But still, it would be hard to risk my tournament against such a dangerous board.


Question 2: "Now what should Player A do if he has about an average stack of chips?"

In question 1, I said I would fold to a small re-raise, and this is a similar situation. The main question here is: What hands would he make this bet with? Would he make this bet win an ace? Definately. A pair between nines and kings? Well, he obviously would, but I think these hands would be more likely if he had made an all-in bet. Would he make this bet with a pair of eights? Yes. Would he make this bet with a pair lower then eights? With a low pair here, I'd expect him to want a cheap showdown, since he can't call any raise. So probably not. Any outright bluff hands? Maybe, since I checked, but an all-in would be a more likely bluff bet. So based on the hands I can put him on, there's a very good chance I'm beat, so I would probably have to fold.


Question 3: "The third question is what if Player A decides to take the lead and bet $40,000 after the flop. Then what is the correct play for Player B to make?"

Here, player B would need to think about player A's possible hands. Since A would be taking the lead, a bluff is even less likely. I don't see any way player B could call here, unless he had a really strong tell. However, if A is known to be an aggressive player, then player B could try to re-raise all-in to force him off the hand. It would be very dependant on player A's table image.

Question 4: "The last question is should player A took the lead to bet out at the pot instead of checking to player B and giving him the advantage of making a bet?"

Definately. Re-read my analysis of question 1 and you should see why.