Poker 21

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Ask any group of poker players how you played your hand and they’ll come up with dozens of different opinions. That’s just the nature of the game.

Each week, Card Player will select a hand from the high-stakes, big buy-in poker world, break it down and show that there’s more than one way to get the job done.

The Scenario

There are seven players remaining in a major live tournament and you are well into the money. You have 3, 520, 000 in chips, good enough for fifth place overall. The blinds are only 40, 000-80, 000 with a 10, 000 ante, however, so you still have a healthy 44 big blinds remaining. There is only one short stack at the table, sitting with 12 big blinds.

The action folds around to the button who has you just slightly outchipped and he raises to 180, 000. The small blind folds and you look down at 75 in the big blind. You decide to defend and the flop comes down Q86, giving you an open-ended straight flush draw.

You check and your opponent continues for 200, 000. You decide to check-raise to 400, 000 and your opponent reraises to 650, 000.

The Questions

What do you do in this spot? Do you call or raise? Given your opponent’s line, what does his range consist of? Would he possibly do this with a better draw? If raising, how much? Do you have any fold equity? If calling, what is your plan for the turn?

What Actually Happened

At the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open main event, Brian Phillis opted to just call the reraise from Omar Zazay with his 75 on a flop of Q86.

The turn was the 8 and Phillis check called a bet of 545, 000. The river was the 10 and both players checked. Phillis showed his busted draw and Zazay revealed AQ for top pair, top kicker.

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