An Interesting Hand

By Nick Eisel

The past month has been crazy for me with Vegas and the World Series. I ended up finishing 450th when I was somewhat short-stacked and pushed in overtop a guy that was raising a lot when I found AQ. He called with AJ and when a Jack hit the flop that was it for me. All in all it was a good experience though and I felt like I played well and just didn't get the cards when I needed to.

Now that I'm back from Vegas and things have settled down, I've gotten back into my routine of playing lots of Shorthanded Online Poker. This month I have a very interesting hand that I want to share with all of you.

The reason this hand is so unique is that it was a tough decision for me based on the players involved, pot odds, and the fact that I knew I was beat at the time and was unsure as to how many outs I actually had. Let's take a closer look.

The stage is set in a $2/$4 six-handed game on Poker Stars.

The player under the gun opens the pot with a raise. From what I've seen of this guy so far, his raising standards are pretty liberal and he will basically raise any hand he wants to play before the flop. My notes showed that he had previously raised KTo (after a few limpers), QJo, J9s, 87s.

The player next to act was a complete calling station and called the raise. We'll call him Player A. The next player folded and quite possibly the loosest player I've ever seen, Player B, also called the raise. To define what I mean by "loosest I've ever seen," I'd seen him call a raise with 83 offsuit and then call a bet on a J22 flop in a multiway pot.

Get the picture?

The button and small blind folded their hands and I was in the big blind with K K. I put in the mandatory reraise and everyone called.

The Flop : 4 5 7 There is $25 in the pot

Clearly this isn't a very good flop for my kings. I considered going for a checkraise to possibly thin the field, but I didn't feel like it was likely that either of the calling stations in the last two positions would bet for sure. Even though I thought this was a flop that probably hit them in some way, they both played pretty peculiarly and I didn't want to issue a free card if two kings were still the best hand.

I bet and was called by the preflop raiser and Player A. Player B then raised and I had to try to put him on a hand.

Sometimes I'll just lay my hand down here against a loose/passive opponent like the one I was currently facing since they usually don't raise on draws and I'll never know if I'm drawing dead or possibly have some outs against two pair. Even if I am ahead, with this dangerous of a board, it's quite likely that I'll be outdrawn if all of my opponents stay until the River. Based on what I had seen from Player B in previous hands, he would sometimes make a raise on the flop with a flush draw or more likely, a pair and a flush draw. I also thought if he held the 6 and another heart giving him the flush and straight draws he would surely raise. Because of this, I knew I couldn't fold my hand just yet with all of that money in the pot.

Hopefully most of you already realize that the right play then is to reraise rather than call. The reasoning of course being that I want to try to get the two players in between out of the hand and give myself the best possible chance to win the pot. Calling to try and peel a safe card is a bad idea here for a few reasons. First off, there are a ton of cards that could come off of the deck and look very bad for a pair of kings in this spot. Because of that, you may check when you should have bet out on the turn and end up costing yourself the pot through a free card. You also don't want to let the two players in the middle see the turn cheaply like I said earlier. A final reason why it is basically obligatory to reraise the flop in this spot is that I felt like Player B would go ahead and cap it with a straight and not slowplay and wait to raise the turn like some stronger opponents might do. If he just had two pair or something, I'd already seen him slow down and just go into call down mode starting on the flop when someone else showed strength. I wanted to know immediately if he had the straight so that I could get off of my hand with minimal losses and a reraise is the best way to find out.

I reraised the pot, the preflop raiser folded, and Player A and B both just called my raise.

At least I got rid of the preflop raiser, right?

At this point I still wasn't sure where I was at in the hand since as I said earlier, Player B could have slowed down with two pair, or he could just be on some kind of draw or have a pair and a draw.

The Turn : 5 There is $45 in the pot

That was not a great card for me unless both players were on draws or Player B had specifically 74 for two pair and just got counterfeited. I figured I would certainly find out where I was at now as I currently had Player B on two pair or a draw, and his action on this round should tell me whether or not I am still leading.

I led out the turn and was instantly called by Player A and then raised by Player B.

Well, that's it for me, right?

Hold on now just a second. At this point, the pot has $61 in it and I'm being offered 15 to 1 on a call on the turn! It's not too often you're being given such good odds on taking off a card, especially in a shorthanded game.

If my read was right, and I strongly felt that it was, I would only have the two Kings as outs. A two outer is a 23 to 1 shot, and would've been a slightly marginal call in this situation. A couple of things that also factor in here are that I'm virtually guaranteed that Player A will call with any hand here giving me 16 to 1, and I'll likely make more money on the river when I do hit a King, so I have some implied odds there. Even that doesn't make it a correct though as I'm still not getting the 23 to 1 and there are some very unlikely scenarios where I will hit a King and run into Player B's Quad 5s.

The difficult part of this hand though is that if Player B is being tricky and did in fact flop a straight, I would have an additional two outs with the two 5s left in the deck to give me a full house. A four outer is a much more attractive 12 to 1 shot and I'm getting a big overlay to call if all of those outs are clean.

To be fair, I think it's probably best to assign this hand a value of 3 outs which is exactly a 15 to 1 shot. With that in mind, and my read that this player did in fact have a full house and I only had two outs, I think it's pretty clear why I elected to fold my hand here.

Player A called the raise.

The River : 5

Both players check and Player A shows Q J for a weak overcard draw that he couldn't let go of. I told you he was the loosest ever.

Player B shows 8 6 for the flopped straight and straight flush draw.

Turns out I would've made the winning hand on the river and did indeed have the necessary 4 outs to call. So, was I wrong in my laydown?

I really don't think that I made a bad fold because it was a close decision anyway and my read told me that I will usually be drawing to two outs in this spot. What actually happened here was that my opponent waited to raise the turn because he also had the straight flush draw in addition to the nut straight. I think that if he had just flopped the straight (and yes, he would call a raise with 86o), he would've just gone ahead and capped on the flop. It was the added flush possibility that caused him to wait for the turn and ended up costing me the pot in the process as I could've drawn cheaply had I known he held the straight on the flop (I would have pot odds to check call the turn when the 5 came off).

I also have a few other things I want to talk about regarding this hand. Let's say you were playing my cards in this hand and you elected to call the raise on the turn. Now, when a complete blank comes off on the river, Player B bets again. Are you the type of person that would pay off here "because the pot is so big?" If so, then you should definitely be folding your hand on the turn so you don't end up turning a close call/fold situation into a losing call by paying off on the river.

Let me reiterate that. If you call the turn and "miss" your full house on the river, you cannot pay off another bet! Go back to the turn and remember how sure I was that I was beaten at that point. There was absolutely no doubt in my mind as my opponent was passive and not capable of making all of those raises as bluffs. So basically, you have to treat the hand like you are drawing at a gutshot straight, you cannot call the river if you don't get there.

A final thing to talk about is that if you make your hand on the river, you should definitely lead out. Less so if you hit a 5 than a K, but you should be leading out regardless. The reason for this is that Player A will probably have enough hand to call in between and then Player B will pay you off with the straight if he has it. If you hit a K, it will look like a completely innocuous card (unless it's the K, completing the flush), and you should bet so that you can hopefully trap Player A in between and then get a 3bet in. Even if the K comes off you should still bet out because if Player B has a full house he will almost certainly go four bets with you, putting you on a flush. Finally, going for a checkraise here is wrong because of the loose Player A in the middle and you want to give him a chance to put some money in on the river with whatever garbage he has.

Hopefully you can get yourself to do the type of thinking process that this hand exemplifies as it will help you make tough decisions at the table like I had to do in the above hand. Also if you don't understand the logic behind any of the decisions I made, please feel free to email me about it.

Nick Eisel
Sun3urst@hotmail.com