Hand to Talk About

[Mason Malmuth]

I actually made it to the poker room tonight and here's a hand I played in the $30-$60 game.

First a little background. The Bellagio has a tournament going right now and I ended up in a $30-$60 game with a little unusual makeup. First, there were (if you include me) five tough regulars, and five people, none of who I knew, who were here for the tournament.

I raised first in two off the button with A[img]/forums/images/icons/spade.gif[/img]J[img]/forums/images/icons/heart.gif[/img]. The player on my left folded, but one of the tough players who was on the button made it three bets. Both blinds folded, I made it four bets, and my opponent called. (Remember, at The Bellagio the cap is five bets.)

The flop came A[img]/forums/images/icons/club.gif[/img]9[img]/forums/images/icons/diamond.gif[/img]6[img]/forums/images/icons/heart.gif[/img]. I bet, my opponent raised, I reraised, he made it four bets, and I called.

The turn was the K[img]/forums/images/icons/spade.gif[/img]. I checked, my opponent bet, and I called.

The river brought another six which paired the board. We both checked and my hand was good.

All comments welcome.

[Dynasty]

The only hand I can put your opponent on is 87s. Or a post-flop overplayed QQ, JJ or TT?

Maybe he misread the board and thought his AT was no good?

[PokerPrince]

I like the way this hand was played. The only thing that I might suggest would be to bet into him on the river. If he had AA, KK, or AK he would most likely cap preflop. If he holds an AQ then you split the pot with him. This bet is mandatory IMO.

PokerPrince

[CreamPuff]

This bet is mandatory IMO.

Really. And if he has AK?
A bet is clearly wrong. Against any reasonable player
he is either getting half the pot, or raised and
losing 2 bets.

His opp. played his hand very bad. There is no flush
draw, so he had a pocket underpair and tried to
get too fancy against and just gave
up on the river.

And taking into account that he may have a pocket underpair,
then KK is another possibity (I'll put him on QQ).

MM is more than happy to have made as much as he did.
Looking at the results and saying a bet is the
best play is not correct.

You must play with some serious maniacs to make this
even close to being a good bet on the river.

[PokerPrince]

Don't you think "if" his opponent had AK he would have capped it preflop? Are you one of these players that ALWAYS puts the other guy on AK? There are a lot of "if's" in poker. You can safely bet the river here as you very well may have the best hand. If you get raised you can muck your hand and you lose the same amount you would have lost if you check-called. Although i'm not sure mucking would be the correct choice in a heads up situation in this scenario. Start thinking from now on so I don't have to explain everything to you.

PokerPrince

[cybertilt]

I like everything except the reraise on the flop. I'm sure you know your opponent, but with the heat on the pre-flop I would have to respect the possibility of AK, AQ, and even AA. I like the turn call, because now we even bring KK into play.

Good win.

[brad]

i think the key is that youre playing against a tough regular that i assume youve played with a lot and know pretty well.

against an unknown player id have to say that you semi overplayed your hand although the illusion of action is there since really objectively i think you put in only 2 sort of speculative small bets so lets look maybe you overplayed your hand in an illusion of action sense by like one half to one small bet.

if the flop had a two flush then probably the only thing anyone could take issue with i guess is the 4 bet preflop.

[mikelow]

I think either you got lucky on this hand or the other player was on meth. There was very little you could beat. He must have had QQ or KK.

[Clarkmeister]

As soon as Mason's opponent raises the flop, his most likely holding becomes a pocket pair less than aces, most likely TT-KK. This becomes even more true when he 4-bets as AK or a set would almost certainly call the 3-bet from Mason and raise the turn. Since the K on the turn didn't help him, we can safely assume TT, JJ or QQ IMO.

I think Mason should have strongly considered leading the river, but its close. I love his play on the other streets.

[JTG51]

"Don't you think "if" his opponent had AK he would have capped it preflop?"

Don't you think he's more likely to cap it with QQ (which seems to be the consensus) that he would be with AK?

The other guys play just doesn't seem to add up to me here. If he really is a solid player, he sould know that MM could 4 bet with more than just the usual suspects in that position. So I'd expect him to make it 5 bets with QQ or JJ in this situation. Then again, I wouldn't expect him to play QQ or JJ so aggressively after the flop.

It doesn't seem to add up to a solid player making a solid play to me. Maybe I'm way off base, but I think the other guy goofed this one up big time.

I hope Mason will give some thoughts on his opponents play also.