heaven, hell or limbo?

[Randy Reed 0]

Excerpt from Killer PokerThought this was interesting,Limit poker, say $10/$20, You are heads up against a single opponent who calls your raise from small blind. The flop A 9 3 hits your hand of A J favorably. The small blind checks, you bet and she calls. The turn comes a 10 , you bet and she raises. Where are you and what do you do?

[Swift_Psycho 1]

Unless this is a player that is capable of bluffing here, this is almost certainly a fold. You only have top pair, mediocre kicker, against someone who has just check/raised you on the expensive street. Almost certainly you are going to have to call another bet on the river as well. You cannot beat A-K, A-Q, A-10, A-9, or any set he may be holding. You have no draw and there is a decent possibility that pairing you're Jack still won't give you the win if he has a set. Mumble loudly, curse the world for your bad luck, and toss it into the muck.

[akishore 0]

wow, tough situation.i would probably call and C/c the river.it also depends on the SB... capable of pulling plays? here are some thoughts:1. called out of position pre-flop heads-up. decent hand.2. check-called the flop heads-up. normally you do that on a draw or when you're trapping.3. check-raised on the turn, when the bet doubles. usually this means you have a strong hand.4. we're heads-up, i was the pre-flop aggressor, of course i'm betting out on the flop. SB probably knows this. but i continue to show aggression on the turn. has SB seen me do this with king-high before, or has she seen my shy up everytime i miss the flop and my flop bet gets called?maybe i'm overthinking this, but if the SB is a tricky player, this is a good play with 7-high against a player who will bet out heads-up on every street but fold to a raise on any street if the board hasn't hit him. since i have TPGK, i would call, because the SB has good reason to make this play with KQ, AK, JJ, 99, QJs, 78s, etc.unless i have a read on the SB that screams "tight-passive", i'm check-calling this down because the range of hands he could be holding--given that he is capable of making bluffs and plays like this--is wide, and i have a good amount of them beat with AJ.i might be wrong, but i think calling and C/c the river is the right play.aseem

[wrto4556 0]

It matters who you are up against, I play Q J the same way. It could be a C/r semi-bluff.

[RISEorFall 0]

It matters who you are up against, I play Q J  the same way. It could be a C/r semi-bluff.

but if you had QJs why would you have called a bet on the flop? you had nothing but 2 runner runner draws. so you got the best card you basically could have, but you still don't have anything. the only thing that beats you that you'd run out of this hand esp. heads up would be a K-high or maybe - maybe - a pair of nines. I doubt a pair of Aces folds here, and trips definately won't. Vorhaus even says in his book (which i love by the way, esp. the section on 3-betting AK preflop) that if they had raised w/ QJs they're making a mistake, and you (having the AJ) should call.

[wrto4556 0]

It matters who you are up against, I play Q J  the same way. It could be a C/r semi-bluff.

but if you had QJs why would you have called a bet on the flop? you had nothing but 2 runner runner draws. so you got the best card you basically could have, but you still don't have anything. the only thing that beats you that you'd run out of this hand esp. heads up would be a K-high or maybe - maybe - a pair of nines. I doubt a pair of Aces folds here, and trips definately won't. Vorhaus even says in his book (which i love by the way, esp. the section on 3-betting AK preflop) that if they had raised w/ QJs they're making a mistake, and you (having the AJ) should call.

bad example. How about A 7 ?

[RISEorFall 0]

bad example. How about A 7 ?

That's something I'd be a little more worried about. However, if i had A7s and hit an ace on the flop, i might check-raise. yeah it's probably not the smartest of plays, but with only 2 people in the hand, and 2 of the aces accounted for, i'd have to find out if they had the 3rd ace. There'd be a very real probability I have the best hand there, and I'd rather not wait til the turn to find out. if they reraise you're definately beat, and if they just call you might be able to keep up the aggression on the bigger streets and get a fold from the ace with a bad kicker, but better than yours. you could also lose more money like that, though. I'm probably really overthinking this :-)

[Randy Reed 0]

Yeah, I like alot of Vorhaus's analogies and thought processes as well.QJ Right, a drawing hand and mistake to raise, call her.But, what about 9-9, 3-3 or even A-9 hit the flop hard and decided to check raise the turn, you should fold.Then again, maybe she decided to bluff with her AT, representing a set, so you raise her efenerable cheese!Anyway, so many hands are posted with what appears to be clear cut, pot odds type moves, when clearly they are not. Having a read on this opponent is the only way to play this hand any further. Questions abound. Does the player ever defend the blinds? Is this the type of player who will make tricky bluffs? Is it a straightforward player? Timid or Bold? Loose or weak?Sometimes you just have to (like Daniel says), go into the think tank, dig back in your memory and and try to rationalize what the player may be doing. I think this is the essence of what separates the better players from the rest of the pack.

[Randy Reed 0]

Oh yeah, I would be remiss not to mention that the answers were great. Everyone mentioned the possible scenarios and what type of read you had on the opponent, which was the correct answer ultimately.