bigstealer turns bigblogger
Thursday 12 July 2012
Heads Up Madness?
PokerStars Hand #78488992786: Tournament #543713965, $92.60+$7.40 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level V (75/150) - 2012/04/07 19:48:53 WET [2012/04/07 14:48:53 ET]
Table '543713965 1' 6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: Hero (3371 in chips)
Seat 3: Villain (5629 in chips)
Villain: posts small blind 75
Hero: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [4s Kc]
Villain: calls 75
Hero: checks
*** FLOP *** [3h Ac Ah]
Hero: bets 150
Villain: raises 300 to 450
Hero: calls 300
*** TURN *** [3h Ac Ah] [9h]
Hero: checks
Villain: checks
*** RIVER *** [3h Ac Ah 9h] [9s]
Hero: bets 450
Villain: raises 4579 to 5029 and is all-in
Hero: calls 2321 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (2258) returned to Villain
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Villain: shows [5c 7c] (two pair, Aces and Nines)
Hero: shows [4s Kc] (two pair, Aces and Nines - King kicker)
Hero collected 6742 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 6742 | Rake 0
Board [3h Ac Ah 9h 9s]
Seat 1: Hero (big blind) showed [4s Kc] and won (6742) with two pair, Aces and Nines
Seat 3: Villain (button) (small blind) showed [5c 7c] and lost with two pair, Aces and Nines
This hand was played in the closing stages of a $100 6 max tournament versus a very aggressive regular who likes to mix it up both in and out of position usually balancing his bluffs and made hands very well. To say that we know each other's game well is an understatement but don't let yourself be fooled into thinking that this particular hand was a case of psychological warfare.
So, first up the villain limps in on the button which, whilst it could be a trap, is most likely a sign of a weaker hand that he is not willing to raise especially as it is early in the Heads Up situation. I have K4 off suit and, whilst well ahead of his range in this spot, choose to check as I do not want to bloat the pot preflop out of position with a hand that does not flop well.
The flop is A A 3 with a two hearts. It is a very good one for my King high as very few hands have been improved by the Ace paired board and the lowly 3. Subsequently, I bet half the pot both for value from flush draws (not to mention I can expect a lot of floats in his range) and for protection as my hand is very vulnerable and checking would give the villain the opportunity to check behind leaving me guessing on the turn. My bet is instantly raised by the villain and with his aggressive reputation in mind I call as I am so often ahead in this spot. The turn is a nasty card, the 9 of hearts, completing a flush so I check to the aggressor most likely with the intention of folding to a turn bet. The villain checks behind instantly signalling to me that he does not have a flush. However, he is tricky enough to play the flush passively (and stacks are shallow enough for it to be conceivable) so when the board double pairs on the river when the 9 of spades peels, I put out a small bet which has 3 functions. The 1st of which is to get value from any queen high or jack high bluff that he might have thought was no good on the flop but now that my pair of 3s (which I could easily have with the line I've taken) has been counterfeited by the second 9, it may well be the best hand. The 2nd function is to provide a blocker bet for the unlikely event of him having a flush in which case I'd expect a flat call as he really cannot expect much long term value from raising with a flush here and could get levelled into losing his stack if raised again. The 3rd of which is to induce a bluff from a counterfeited 3 that HE may have had or any random unconnected hand with which he may try to bluff with. After I bet the villain takes a couple of seconds before raising all in and with pot odds of 2 to 1 it's a fairly easy snap call (as I only need to be right 33% of the time to show profit and I'd expect him to be bluffing well over half the time here). The villain mucks his hand and after inspecting the hand replayer is found to have a poultry 75 of spades.
bigstealer
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Pretty sick call, he also didn't raise pre-flop which means there are likely less As in his range, and if that's true, what's he trying to rep with this excessive shove on the end? My thoughts would be a flush would call almost all of the time, a 9 although could get levelled (unlikely), would probably make a smaller raise to eek out a call (from any decent kicker you could have, it's also unlikely you have an A here). And again, like you say, he could sometimes check a flush back on the turn, but with the third heart coming he's probably never checking back an A here as it would still stand to be ahead and need bet for value and protection, so I think his turn check has really defined he doesn't have an A in this hand which is why I'm not a really a great fan of his river jam. I think in spots like that, if I got raised to around 1k/1.2k, it looks stronger and there's more legit hands in his value raising range (such as 9s) so I would be more skeptical in that case and could think about folding (especially since we'd have better odds and he's aware of that, although will dependent on the opponent and what we recognise of his tendencies). When he's made the excessive shove though, it essentially thins his range out more and if we've decided he'll almost never have an A, then his shove has actually made it easier to call.
ReplyDeleteHaving said all that, this is still a really tough river call for your stack, and only one I could think about making I think against a reg who I knew very well.
Very true Mikey. This is very specific to a certain brand of player who you know is looking for spots to make moves. With regards to what he might be trying to rep you're right his range is polarised to the nuts which he can almost never have in that spot. However, he might not feel he NEEDS to rep anything as the most likely hand I could have is probably a counterfeited pair of 3s and as I checked the BB I probably have no kicker too making it more a case of me not being able to call a raise rather than throwing away a decent hand.
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