Another Main Event Hand

runnerunner · #1 07-26-2006, 05:18 PM

This hand happened to me in the Main Event last year.

Middle of Day 2
Blinds 400-800 with a 100 ante.
Average stack is probably $55K.

Jason Lester has just been moved to my table with 90K and on his third hand opens from UTG+1 for 2,500.

Folds around to me in SB with $100K and I look down to see AKs. What do I do?

MLG · #2 07-26-2006, 05:22 PM

make it 8k and go from there...or just call. either way seems fine.

uclabruinz · #3 07-26-2006, 05:42 PM

I favor just calling against a strong player.

MLG · #4 07-26-2006, 05:46 PM

i like raising but raising v calling is completely dependant on how you play your other hands, but i think it should be more in the 10k range than 7500 or 8k now that i think about it. If im repopping it I don't want to give him room to raise and fold on the flop.

runnerunner · #5 07-26-2006, 06:04 PM

I elected to call because I didn't want to play a big pot OOP against a strong player when I had no idea how he played. He also was the only guy at the table with more than 70K, so I felt I could use my stack size to pick up chips by pushing around the medium stacks. I didn't want to put this ability in jeopardy out of position against a guy who probably was not going to make a huge mistake against me.

I call. Flop is 9 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]7 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]4 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]. I have A [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]K [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

I check. He checks behind. Turn is the T [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

Bet half the pot?

jason75 · #6 07-26-2006, 07:48 PM

Jason Lester is fairly aggressive (at least that's what DH says in his book).

I think your reasoning for calling here is fairly sound. I also think you do need to consider raising this hand some % of the time. If I raised I'd pop it to about 10K as well (I'd pop it to only about 7500 if I was in position against him).

On the turn, I'd bet 2/3 the pot. If he raises, I seriously consider pushing.

nightlyraver · #7 07-26-2006, 08:33 PM

Although I've never played with Lester, he seems to be a very solid player as evidenced by his televised play along with commentaries by Harrington and other pros.

Anyway, he's not messing around with junk from the first couple of seats. Therefore, I'm putting him on a solid hand, perhaps 99+, AK, maybe AQs and a couple other semi-bluff hands like JTs.

IMHO, I don't think there is really anything wrong with simply folding, but that's a bit weak for my tastes.

I think reraising is very reckless. On the one hand, you will get him to fold his semi-bluff hands, a big suited ace that is not AKs, and maybe 88-JJ, but that's certainly not guaranteed. On the other hand, he's simply going to move in on you when he has a big pocket pair. I don't know what he would do with AK.

Given these facts, I would just call and see a flop. I would also proceed with caution, since his range allows him to either lose a little or win a lot when we make a hand.

Given the fact that we did not improve on the flop, I'm assuming that we are now way behind. Against a player that raises with lots of unpaired big card hands from EP, I may toss out a bluff on the flop, but not here.

After picking up the nut draw on the turn, I'm still not betting. We really do not want to get raised off of our draw. If he has a big pair, he's going to put in a big raise. If he has a big ace hand, we are already ahead and he has few, if any, outs to win.

I would expect a bet after we check. I honestly hate calling large turn bets with a flush draw and only one card to come, since we only have one more street to extract chips if we hit on the next card.

As long as the bet is reasonable, I'm calling on the turn. I would check-fold the river if I miss completely. If I make the nuts, I'm porbably check-raising the river. He'll probably value bet with a big pair, or check behind with AK, which he wouldn't have called a bet with anyway. In fact, I can't think of any hands that aren't worth a value bet with from his point of view that he would have called a bet with if we bet first.

If we make top pair on the river, I'm probably not betting and I would seriously think about folding to any bet.

uclabruinz · #8 07-26-2006, 08:42 PM

That's an excellent analysis nightlyraver and expresses well my reasons for not raising here. Build the pot OOP with little FE against a solid/tough villain who raised from UTG? Not good.

0evg0 · #9 07-26-2006, 08:54 PM

Not to mention he has the perfect stack size to push if you raise to 8-10k, and I'd feel pretty sick calling that all-in. I venture to say this is almost an easy 'call' preflop.

On the turn I lead 4k and am ready to 3-bet all-in as I think he folds anything but a set/straight.