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[imrafa20]

Second nuts

Here's an interesting hand with a little background information.

You're playing heads-up $0.5-$1. Having started out with $200, you now have $500, and a new guy sits down with $100. You soon find out that he's extremely passive, raises to $2-$3 pre-flop and folds to many re-raises.

You have Ah Kh and raised pre-flop, obviously. Your opponent called, and the flop came 3h 7h 4h. You bet $6 and get check-called.

The turn is the Qh. You decide to slowplay, and both of you check.

Fifth street comes 8c and an interesting turn of events takes place.

Opp bets $9
You raise to $29
He raises to $53 (point 1)
You raise to $108
He raises to $163 (point 2)
You go all-in

What should you have done different?

A: You should have folded after point 1
B: You should have called after point 1
C: You should have folded after point 2
D: You should have called after point 2

Your answer

Folding at point 1 is a bit extreme, but you should just call.

What is your _passive_ opponent supposed to have? There are four hearts on the table, and you have the ace and the king. There's no way your opponent will act like this with a jack-high flush.

His first bet says "I have a flush." Your reraise says "My flush is better, I have the ace." The next reraise says "No, I have the ace, or the straight flush, or a bluff." And you have the ace of hearts... Raising is bad, you'll only get reraised by better hands. With only three hearts on the table, or against a very loose opponent, you could reraise again. This doesn't fit the scenario, though.

If you do raise, you have to fold to his fifth bet - there's no way your ace of hearts is the best hand.

[Marie]

Not really too sure exactly what your getting at with the options of A.B.C or D as none of these are the right options. (In my humble opinion anyway, but what do I know!)

You slow played to get action and thats exactly what you got, cant complain about that.

The only other way to play is a big raise on every street and without the board pairing you really must think that you are still infront.

So how did the hand finish anyway???

[Wyte22]

I think you made a very sound all in. Given HU, it is possible he flopped a str8 flush but the odds are, very against it.

He sounds like a weak player, who is moderatly tight. Like I've said in the past, passive and conversative players are donkeys at HU tables, they will get eaten on a regular basis.

One of the reasons you CAN NOT fold this (other than the fact that you moved in) is by the 2nd raise, your pot odds are too great to lay down nut flush unless you are 100% absolutly sure, positivly correct that he has a str8 flush, you DO NOT lay down that ace flush because if you do, he will have won a very important psych war against you by creating doubt in your mind on how to read him for the rest of the time you play against him and you will become a shell of yourself as a player and kinda half ass the table after that or go into hyper-aggression overdrive trying to win back the money you think you lost on a BLUFF. Not worth risking more of your BR later down the road because you lost the head game and are beating yourself for not calling to see if he really did have the straight flush.

Honestly, I think the hand plays out with him having a straight or possibly a lower flush (trips are still very possible). Straight Flush is soo low on the list, I'd pay to see it! And if he has the straight flush, that's poker bro. Just accept it and move on.

[dnmrtni]

This looks real familiar. I'm pretty sure I saw this same thing that another site does on their daily poker quiz.

[liladypokerpro]

This looks real familiar. I'm pretty sure I saw this same thing that another site does on their daily poker quiz.

Well that would explain the multiple choice options, wouldn't it LOL

[HeyKidMove]

I wouldn't fold this ever. You just can't put someone on a straight flush when he needs one exact hand.

[gamer4life27]

Lets examine this further.

He is a passive player, meaning he is only going to raise with decent hands. Your raise pre flop tells the other person that you are either playing position/big stack, you have a pocket pair, have an ace, or a pocket pair. He calls pre flop trying to see a flop, knowing he can just check call the rest of the way.

On the flop, when he checked it, you are telling him that you have two overs, an over pair, top pair top kicker, or a flush draw. He calls, either hit a straight (odds are he DID NOT hit the straight flush), hit trips, or has Jh Xh (probably somewhere between Jh 8h - Jh 10h).

Your bet on the turn pretty much sells the fact that you either have a flush, or trips. You can't possibly have a pair and keep on betting with 4 hearts out there. He calls wither either a straight with ONE heart, or the Jack of hearts or something like that. Maybe even trips, but thats highly unlikely. He could even be trying to bluff, but theres only one way to find out about that.

Your bets on the river tell both of you that both of you have really strong hands. Don't always assume that your only going to get re-raised with the hand that beats you. In Heads Up play, it's all about agression. Since he has established the image that he is passive, he most likely is either bluffing, or has 9-J of hearts.

Also, how much did you raise pre flop? That can also factor into the pot. If you raised minimum (so theres $4 before rake in the pot) and you raised it $6 on the flop, thats a little fishy. But if you raised it to $3 - $4 pre flop, making $6-$8 in the pot, thats a bit more likely he is bluffing on the river. Your bets are all of position, trying to make him think you have a strong hand when you don't. He picked up on this and is trying to bluff you out of a situation where he is dead to two specific cards.

[gamer4life27]

He raises to $163 (point 2)

bty, how could he raise that much on the river when he started with only $100?

[frob23]

He raises to $163 (point 2)

bty, how could he raise that much on the river when he started with only $100?

I was wondering the same thing... and how much could he possibly have left behind? We have to assume, from the skimpy information, that this player hasn't been here long enough or shown enough aggression to have doubled up... be even at that point... the $163 has got to be nearly all-in anyway.

Accurate stack sizes for the 2nd player would help a lot with reading this hand.

Edit: I am almost certain this is not the straight flush. If he had the 56h, he misplayed the turn so badly in this hand that it blows my mind. The river was misplayed as well. Depending on his stack size, you should have been all-in right at point 1.

[gamer4life27]

I was wondering the same thing... and how much could he possibly have left behind? We have to assume, from the skimpy information, that this player hasn't been here long enough or shown enough aggression to have doubled up... be even at that point... the $163 has got to be nearly all-in anyway.

Accurate stack sizes for the 2nd player would help a lot with reading this hand.

Edit: I am almost certain this is not the straight flush. If he had the 56h, he misplayed the turn so badly in this hand that it blows my mind. The river was misplayed as well. Depending on his stack size, you should have been all-in right at point 1.

Exactly what I was thinking also. I guess great minds think alike.

[Vito_Nuccio]

He raises to $163 (point 2)

bty, how could he raise that much on the river when he started with only $100?

In order to raise to 163 the other player had to first get passed the raise to 108. Where did these chips come from?

Also, I do not see the other player raising to 53 if the stacks are correct, that would leave less than 40 in their stack, it should have been a full shove from them at point 1, not enough chips left to play the rest of the hand with the pot so high.

Thanks,

[Fictive]

Gotta go all-in on that one. I'm pretty sure this guy is a moron vastly overplaying his queen-high flush, or even worse, a possible straight. But it's gotta be the flush. Hell, if he actually did have the straight flush, what you gonna do, you got beat big time. Besides, losing to straight flush doesn't even bother me personally, that's a hand you can lose to...