You're sitting with 1800 chips early in a $20 MTT. Blinds are 25/50, and you are dealt K 8 on the BB. The hand is folded to the button, who calls, and the SB completes.

The flop comes down 5 J 6 . Since you're me and I really like hearts, you like this flop! The SB checks to you. You decide to check, since you're almost certain the button will bet. Sure enough, he (with about 1200 chips) makes a minimum bet of 50. The SB folds. What do you do?

For one thing, there's no way in hell I'd have checked that flop. I'd have overbet the pot immediately. For a pot of 150 I'd have bet at least 250-300, and happily take down the small pot. Whenever I feel like I have a cinch hand in an UNRAISED pot when I'm the blind, I'm in there jamming it. Slowplaying can only get you in trouble.

The 50 chip minimum bet on the button can mean absolutely anything, and you can go crazy overanalyzing what his possible holdings are. A :heart: , top pair, bottom pair, he could have literally anything at this point.

Fortunately, we do know one thing: he didn't raise preflop. An average aggressive player heads up with the blinds will quite frequently raise with a pocket pair or a suited ace. Therefore we can safely assume, I think, that we're way ahead right now.

Since we checked the flop already, which I believe is an incorrect play, the best move right now is an overbet on the flop, of about 300-400. I would call a re-raise all in and think two pair, most likely. The bottom line is I think we're definitely ahead right now and we need to be overbetting each street when non-scare cards come off. I feel even better that we have this joker covered.

I don't know here. The overbet would be the safe play, but he could be taking a stab at the scary flop with absolutely nothing. If you are so sure you are ahead, wouldn't you want to get a little bit out of him? Sure it's possible he has Ah rag... but it's very possible he has another heart and he can't really win this hand. I don't know if you smooth call from EP here, but I wouldn't raise him out of the pot. If he's betting 50, maybe bump it up to 150 or 200 and see what he does. Maybe he'll re-raise a worse hand, or just call looking for another heart... then if a blank falls you can throw out a big bet. Eh, lots of ways to play this one. I don't know if any one answer is going to be totally right.

This may be a controversial play, but I smooth called him on the flop, planning to bet big on the turn if a non-heart came out. The only card that worried me, of course, was A , but I did not think the odds of him having it AND of a fourth heart showing were likely . I wanted to double up off him, so I called to appear that I was drawing to a heart flush but hadn't hit it yet. Sure enough, when a blank rag showed up on the turn, I checked to him, he bet 400, and I raised him all in, which he called probably thinking I had a flush draw still. He did not have any hearts.

Now I know slowplaying is usually bad, but with a made king high flush, early in the tournament when I need chips, I think it may have been the best move at the time. Flame away!

I like it, assuming you are confident you can get him to do what he did on the turn. I wonder how you would have done if a fourth heart dropped, could you have gotten away from ace of hearts?

I'm not sure if I would've been able to get away from it, honestly. However, I was willing to risk that another heart wouldn't fall on the turn, in order to maximize my profits from the button.

Here's how the play went. The turn came 3 . I paused for a long time (heh), checked to him, he bet 400, I "thought" for another while, and pushed all in. He thought for a while, and called, turning over J Q and drawing very dead.

I think it's a somewhat risky move to make in a tournament, but it's a gamble I'd take for a chance to double up. I'm certain my opponent thought I had a heart draw, and was just desperately trying to push him off the pot . Hard to get away from a hand like this, if I were him also (althought I doubt I would've called an all in with JQ).

-Yang

The only card that worried me, of course, was A Suit: Heart


The board pairing should have worried you more.

I'm sure that's probably the same thing I would have done.