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he Guardian Poker Column |
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Victoria
Coren |
Wed 21 Apr 2010 |
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How do you play trips against a solid
player?
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Imagine you are playing in a big televised cash game (blinds
£25-£50) with a strong lineup of international poker faces.
You are dealt 6 4 on the button. When all seven opponents limp
in, you call along. The flop comes J 4 4. Hello! Phil Laak, "The Unabomber", bets
£700. |
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What does he have? It can't be nothing.
Some young hotheads might bet into seven players with "air", but Laak is no
fool. He is testing the water with a jack, or he too has a 4 (maybe A4
suited?), or he has a pocket pair / overpair and limped pre-flop hoping for a
raise that never came.
You call and the turn comes 7. Now Laak
bets a chunky £2,100. Flat-calling is no longer an efficient option. To
play on, you should make a large raise that effectively commits your whole
£15,000 stack. But would this be suicide? Laak must know you have either
a J or a 4. You wouldn't have limped from the button with a pocket pair, so the
flop significantly improved your hand. How can he bet again without his own 4?
It is possible he has AA, or AJ / KJ with a flush draw but, for his dangerous
turn bet, a confident 4 (or even a house of jacks) seems more likely.
In a fast one-table tournament, you'd have shoved on the flop. But this
is a cash game. There will be better spots. You swallow it and pass.
This is how Barny Boatman played 6 4 in the
PartyPoker Big Game last week. Laak held A J. When Boatman was attacked for the fold by a regular trouble-maker
on his own website, I remembered a valuable piece of poker wisdom: you will
never be a winning player if you can't, sometimes, for good reasons, pass the
best hand.
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