Hand from the Canada WCP head's up tourney on pokerstars

Marc Desjardins · #1 03-01-2005, 12:09 AM

It's round 3 of the head's up tournament, so it's the 5th or 6th hands, we haven't seen a single flop yet, either somebody raise and the other folds or the small blind doesn't complete.

I've been thinking a lot about this hand, but I still don't know if my play was ok or not, I'm looking for some feedback...

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t80 (2 handed) converter

BB (t6000)
Hero (t6000)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].
Hero raises to t240, BB raises to t800, Hero calls t560.

Flop: (t1600) 6[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], 7[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] (2 players)
BB bets t1520, Hero calls t1520.

Turn: (t4640) 9[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (2 players)
BB bets t3680 (All-In), Hero calls t3680 (All-In).

River: (t12000) 5[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] (2 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: t12000

Marc Desjardins · #2 03-01-2005, 03:45 PM

ok, I didn't get a single reply and looking at the post, it's pretty obvious why, I played this hand like crap, just calling, calling and calling. But here's my thinking.

First of all, as I said, it's pretty early in the round, there is been a lot of raising, but no re-raising so far, so maybe he was just testing me, see how I would handle it.

When he re-raises before the flop, I put him on a pretty small range on hands, AA, AK, KK, QQ, it could be a smaller pocket pair, but I doubt it. So, I wanted to fold, but I didn't want to look weak the first time I was tested, maybe it was foolish, but I called.

Then the flop hits me good, but he makes a pot size bet, why, if he had AA he probably would have slow played and with one hitting on the board, the odds of that are pretty low. AK, he would want me to call I think, he has to think I had something good too since I called his raise pre-flop, if he had KK or QQ, maybe he's trying to protect his hand, trying to see what I have. The final option was a semi-bluff on a flush draw, but you don't have much time to think online, in retrospect, I should have re-raised, but with the size of the bet compared to the raise, I think it was a case of either I fold or go all-in, anybody agree? Anyway, I didn't get that far in my thinking and I just called.

I was hoping it would slow him down, but when the harmless 9 came and he goes all-in, at this point, I've put about 40% of my stack on the line, I wouldn't be crippled if I folded, but somehow it didn't feel like he was strong, I was trying to put myself in his shoes and that is not how I would play a big hand, but again, it was only the 6th or 7th hand against this guy, so I really didn't know what kind of player he was. So in the end, I called...

Any feedback on my thinking?

MLG · #3 03-01-2005, 03:48 PM

If you really put him on that small a range of hands preflop you can't call the reraise. However, I can't imagine your opponents reraising standards are that small in a HU match. I'd push on the flop and hope he can't get off a weaker A, but calling is ok too.

schwza · #4 03-01-2005, 04:21 PM

this looks pretty good to me, but i don't play heads up.

you should be open raising an awful lot of hands, so he should play back with marginal hands, so i think you've got to call with AQ there.

once you see that flop, i think you've got to be willing to get all the chips in. you've each only got 3x the pot left behind, and his pre-flop play is certainly consistent with a smaller A.

if you raise the flop, you'll force out some hands that will bluff off their stack on later streets. you're likely going to get all-in against an A regardless of when you try to get the money in.

you're going to lose it all when you're behind, and i think the flop call is the best way to make sure you get it all when you're ahead.