A Negreanu Hand
 

From early in the Legends tourney (Taken from his blog):

[ QUOTE ]
I raised to 150 with AK diamonds and got called by a player behind me that I'd never seen before (big surprise).

The flop came A-K-8 rainbow and I fired out 250. My opponent called and I planned on value betting the hand through feeling like he had A-Q or something like that- he called.

The turn card came a Q and I bet 700. My opponent raised me to 1700 and I thought about re-raising again. I had him on A-Q, but he could easily have had 10-J or 8-8. It was so early in the tournament that I didn't think it made sense to gamble with the hand at such a good table so I called.

The river came nothing and I checked, hoping to check and call a nice bet. My opponent bet 1500 and I quickly called.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thoughts on how you would play this hand in a WPT event vs. an unknown?

Nick

Re: A Negreanu Hand
 

Is the reason for his turn call and then betting on the river that is he reraised on the turn he would only get called by better hands, but that his opponenet would bet on the river whether or not his hand was better? I've only been playing a few months and this is a concept that I've been having trouble grasping well enough to apply to my play, but I think its a pretty huge gap in my poker skills.

Re: A Negreanu Hand
 

I think I would play it that exact way, although I might have some trouble resisting a value bet (something like 1500) on the river.


I think the only problem I have it with it is that he is Daniel Negreanu, and has a reputation for splashing around and trying to pick up pots. So his opponent doesn't need to put him on anything near as strong as AK here. Which makes his turn raise a bit less significant. If I had his type of image, I think I bet this river and call a raise.

Re: A Negreanu Hand
 

At first I thought this hand was bad but then I was hard pressed to come up with hands that raise the turn.

Alright, assuming AA/KK reraise preflop, and let's even be generous and say QQ folds the flop.

So let's give him a hand range of AK-A8,QJs/JTs, 88 going into the turn, where QJs and JTs are peeling the flop because the stacks are deep and Daniel probably has a big ace since he raised from EP.

Then he raises the turn. I highly doubt AJ-A9 are raising the turn, so his range is:

Ahead:
AQ - 6 combos
A8 - 6 combos

Chopping:
AK - 4 combos

Behind:
88 - 6 combos
JTs - 4 combos

I think gambler's ruin makes Daniel's play correct, he won a decent pot without risking going broke where he's got about 50% pot equity. This changes of course if we think that AJ/AT raise the turn, but even so we should probably still check/call the river because those hands aren't paying off a river check/raise.

Re: A Negreanu Hand
 

I like his play, particularly in a deep stack tournament. Re-raising the turn should only get called by a better hand and since it's pretty close as to whether we're ahead or behind I like changing gears and trying to keep the pot small.

Re: A Negreanu Hand
 

Without seeing the results yet I'd play it the same, except I might CR the river sometimes if I had a read.