Quiz situational 2

Situational Quiz 2
Answers below questions (just highlight the spaces)

Ok the first quiz I did had pretty clear right answers – other courses of action could be shown to be wrong. This is the same here but other courses of action will sometimes be much closer to being viable and acceptable ways to play the hand.

1) You hold Ah8h and are on the big blind. It is near the start of a 10$+1 2 table sit and go and everyone holds 1000. The player under the gun bets to 60 (bb*3) and gets 3 callers including yourself.

Flop Kh7h5c – you bet 60 and the player under the gun raises you to 60 which is folded to you who call. Turn Kc and you check – the other player bets 250. Do you call? (420 in the pot + 250 to see the river card)

OK yes if you call AND you catch a flush (9 outs) AND he doesn’t have a FULL house AND you are able to put him all in on the river your call costs you 250 and pays out about 242.6. (9 outs divided by unknown cards 46 multiplied by pot that you would win. Now on the positive side it is possible that you have the best of it. He could have AcXc or he could have a low pair so if you got called and you don’t catch the flush you might still have the best of it particularly if the river gives you a pair.

I think it is doubtful if you bet over his 250 that he would fold - I would say going all in here is a strong possibility though. Anything less than trips and he might take you as slow playing K7 two pair on the flop and fold. On the other hand he is NOT going to fold 2 pair very often and he wont fold trips. To me the pot will sometimes be worth risking on a bluff but at this early stage of the tourny he wont have a good read on you and you can expect him probably to call with other hands a moderate amount of the time. All in is a possibility but I would be confident of finding less risky ways to increase my chip stack later on and feel whilst it might work some of the time – without other reads affecting my decisions this to me must be folded. Even if all he has is a club flush draw he might call you. He doesn’t have pot odds for the call if he reads you as having anything good but he is not all that far off.

To me it is a clear fold because it is far from certain that you will get full implied odds (i.e. if you go all in on the river will he call). If you had a solid read on him and were able to place him on two cards that were not hearts then you would have 253.6 for your 250 bet but I would still fold this. If you can put him as A) not a full house but 3k at best on the turn you could go all in on the river on a club on the basis of representing a flush but it is unlikely to me that trips would fold often enough here for this to be profitable. Even on 253 paying. If you don’t catch it is going to be really hard getting back into this tourney with 570 chips. Yes it can be done but I would fold even here. I don’t think you can assume full implied odds and you have to assume I think that he has your Ax beat if you don’t catch a straight. He might not but you don’t want to risk any further chips on this. If he has trip Ks then you might only have 7 or 8 outs rather than 9 as key card might give him full houses. Folding here also sets up slow plays for later. Calling is not a terrible play but doesn’t have the % to make it profitable. If he only bet 150 you could probably call safely – but he didn’t.

2. I have included this in an interesting hands post but will add a version here to bulk the quiz out. I expect some players will strongly disagree with me here – but they will be wrong. You hold AQos and have 200 chips holdings are as follows

Dealer 5000, Small blind 5500, Big Blind 6000, under the gun 416, next player 5000, you 280.

Payout is as follows 4th 40 3rd 80 2nd120 1st160

Under the Gun raises the big blind of 400 all in next player calls – what do you do?

To me this is a clear fold. You can expect probably SB to call and BB not to try to shrink the field if you call. Unless you beat everyone AND other short stack is beaten then you finish on the bubble or are still alive with 1250 with under the gun player holding 664. that second situation is worth something but are you really a big enough favourite to call here where if you fold you will finish in the money whenever underthegun player loses (hard to know what he has got but he is probably no more likely than 40% to win against 3 other players) If you both get knocked out on this hand he will get 4th as he had more money going into the hand. So FOLD FOLD FOLD. Even AA would be a possible fold. If you held 415 (one less than him) and AA then you might consider calling as if you won the hand you would have 2075 and a decent chance of finishing above 4th but otherwise it should be a clear fold.

3. If 22 is all in v. AQos preflop who is favourite?

22 but it is practically a coin toss as there is 1 or 2 percent in it.

4. You hold QhQs in a 2 table sng 5$+1 and bet BB*5 after three players called BB and you get two callers. The flop is AcKc4c. You are first to act what do you do?

Check is probably best with the view to fold any bet. You are probably against someone with an A or a K and you could be against someone with 1 or 2 clubs with a flush draw or a made flush. You could try betting in the hopes that someone with a K will fold or even that someone with A6os with no clubs will fold thinking they are out kickered or against a flush but to me I would just check because 1) to scare off any potential flush chaser you would have to bet quite a bit and 2) you don’t want to be invest too much in a pot when you will be up against a higher pair more often than not.

5. First hand of a 5$ 1 table sng turbo. Player under the gun goes all in and it is folded round to yourself in the dealer button. You hold KK do you call?

OK first of all you have to look at the kind of tourney it is and your bankroll. It is pretty safe at this level that rarely will the player be holding AA the only hand to have an edge on you. He might do but there are many other hands he could have. If he holds AK or AKs or QQ or 22 or AQs you want to call. At a higher stake or after a read of someone you might consider folding. Also if your bankroll would struggle to cope with a defeat here. Basically though calling is a shoe in at this level. QQ is another matter though. As with KK, AKs and AK you are not going to dominate as many hands and there are more hands that could dominate you. Calling MIGHT be ok but I would probably fold QQ.

6.You hold 65s and call the big blind along with three others this is early in a multi table tourney and all the players involved in the pot have c. 1500chips and the blinds are 25/50, The flop is 7c8s9s and the first player goes all in. With 2 others to act after you do you call?

You could be up against a better flush draw or a better made straight or two pair or 1 pair and a straight/ flush draw. Most likely you are up against an open ended straight draw though. This is not a hand you need to involve yourself in at this stage of the tourney but I would adjust my decision on the basis of my read on the player. Some players would only bet big with a made hand here. If I could identify this person as one of those I would fold. If I had no read though I would reckon on 1) probably having the best hand but if not a flush would win it for me 2)if I am up against 2 pair or a flush draw or trips I am big favourite. Ok I could be up against an open ended straight + a flush draw but I think the chance is probably worth taking. Fold is acceptable though and in part it comes down to style of play. But without a read to give me more info I am calling.

6. 700 in pot and you hold KcTh and the board is QcJs2h4s you have 300 chips left in a tourney. Blinds are only 25/50 and will not go up for 8 min. 1 other player in pot bets. You reckon he holds at least 1 pair possibly 2 but are unsure. He bets 100 on the river what do you do?

After various close decisions this one is easy. Call. I haven’t included hand history because it doesn’t matter a straight will win it for you unless it gives him a flush in spades you are still looking at having 8 outs or more. It might be that a K would give you the winning hand with top pair as well. 8 outs out of 46 unknown cards multiplied by pot if you call equals 156.5 so it is worth more than the 100 it costs and that is before any implied odds come in to play. If you catch your straight you will probably be called. Ok 300 can be made into a lot of chips easier than 200 if your straight doesn’t come but I would reckon that unless you have excellent reads on other players and they have shown some exploitable weaknesses to you calling this is a must. Even then it would be hard to imagine circumstances in which I would not want to call this.

1) Fold you don't have a shot at the best possible hand, its early on in the tourny, and your not going to bluff this guy out.

2)Go all in. You only have $200 chips and will be taken out by the blinds soon anyway. The other short stack will be playing the waiting game also and can outlast you. Hitch your wagon to the AQ, it will most likely be your best shot at finishing in the money.

3) the two's slightly better (But I wouldnt be excited going up against AQ preflop)

4) Check or small value bet

5) call without hesitation

6)call payoff is worth the risk at this point

I know I'm not experienced as many of the people here, but this one surprised me. I read Cowboy's preflop guide, and he has AQ, whether its suited or not, in the 2nd group under AA, KK, & QQ. Later in the guide he states that 22 is not a good hand to call at all. Should I assume that calling any pocket pair has an advantage over an unsuited hand like AQ, AJ, etc.? (assuming that it would be low to call and not a large bet)

I've been told different ways of calculating your odds, and I have to say that I prefer this over the other ones hands down.

Nice post

-Steve

22 is only favourite heads-up i.e- 1v1 play. The more players there are in the hand, the less effective pocket pairs become, as there is a bigger chance that someone may catch a straight or flush etc., which would beat your 22 or even trips... 22 is only good when there is a smaller number of players left

Thanks for the response. That's what I originally thought as well, but after I read that I understood it the wrong way. I see what you meant now though

-Steve

1 you don't have the chips to chase the flush or the right pot odds not that you have the chips to bear out the odds anyway...so fold

2 if there are 6 people left and only 4 paid you have to call.

3 22 is a small fav over aq os 54%

4 you have to either bet big or check i'd check with two callers one or both will have either the ace or king.

5 when you have a shot at taking somebody out and moving up in the tourney you do it, and with kk it's a no brainer.

6 you have the straight and a striaght flush poss as well as a flush poss. i tend to take more chances early so i think i'd call.

7 fold

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i'm sorry, did you have pocket aces?