Excerpt from Moorman's Book of Poker

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Game: PokerStars $50 Turbo 6-Max, February 2014

Hand:  Q♠-8♠

Position:  BB

Players: 6

Blinds/ante: 15/30

Preflop: Hero is BB with Q♠-8♠

4 folds, SB raises to 60, Hero calls 30

Flop: (120) 7♦-5♣-3♠ (2 players)

SB checks, Hero bets 60, SB calls 60

Turn: (240) 7♦-5♣-3♠-2♥ (2 players)

SB checks, Hero bets 120, SB calls 120

River: (480) 7♦-5♣-3♠-2♥-9♦ (2 players)

SB checks, Hero bets 240, SB calls 240

Byron

This hand is from very early on in a $50 PokerStars 6-Max turbo. We are playing 15-30, and the general stack size around the table is 100BB although I’ve suffered an early reverse and dropped down to around 70BB. I am in the big blind with Q♠-8♠. The action is folded round to the small blind, who opens to 60. If I had a junky hand here such as 7-6o or K-4o I’d consider a small raise, since it’s hard to flop well so I’d like to take the pot down preflop, but would not be giving up much equity if I then had to fold to a reraise. Q-8s is a decent hand heads-up and has the potential to flop well.

The flop comes 7♦-5♣-3♠, giving me overcards and some backdoor draws. There is 120 in the pot and the effective stack is just over 2,000. The small blind now checks, which I take to mean that he has most likely completely missed the flop, having just overcards and is pot controlling. I have very decent equity against a random overcard hand since, if any of my backdoor draws complete, or I pair the eight or queen, my hand will be well disguised, and I can probably get paid off. Also if a four or a six arrive on board, it will be very hard for the small blind to call down with just overcards. I, therefore, decide on a plan of pretty much barreling all three streets unless an ace or king arrive at any time.

I bet 60 on the flop and the SB calls. This firms up my read that he is playing a pure overcard hand. The turn brings 7♦-5♣-3♠-2♥.

This is utterly useless in terms of either helping my hand or allowing me to represent something. The SB checks and I fairly quickly bet 120 into the 240 pot, expecting to have decent fold equity. Unfortunately, the small blind calls, and the river brings 7♦-5♣-3♠‑2♥-9♦. There is 480 in the pot and I decide that it’s worth a final stab of half pot since I only need the small blind to fold 33 percent of the time for this bet to show a profit. He thinks for quite a while but eventually makes the call with A-K and takes down the pot.

I’m not sure what to think about this hand. Maybe I should give up on the plan of trying to barrel him off his hand when I failed to pick up any extra equity on the turn. Or maybe my plan was okay and, in general +EV, but I ran into a particularly sticky player. I am not sure it will be +EV for him to have a default play of calling down three streets as played. Then again maybe the correct line is very player dependent and, having no reads at all, maybe a more conservative line is preferable.

Chris

Villain should be making it three times the BB at these stack depths because no matter how strong his hand, he shouldn’t encourage you to play against him in position. He needs to charge you more than a min-raise to continue 70BB deep.

You have a very easy call with Q-8s. There is no other option. Your hand is too good to turn into a three-bet bluff when getting amazing odds to just call the initial raise in position.

The 7♦-5♣-3♠ board is pretty dry, but is better for your range than for your opponent’s. Lots of your hands will have straight draws on this board, whereas Villain will more often have two Broadway cards. Once Villain checks, it’s fine for you to take a stab here with two overcards and a bunch of backdoor draws, plus the chance that your opponent check-folds with a hand that dominates you, such as Q-J or K-Q. Once Villain check-calls, I assume he often has a hand like ace-high. I would plan to continue barreling on any turn that gives you added equity, such as a spade, 4, 6, 8 or queen, and give up on any board pairs.

An offsuit 2 is actually a very bad card for you to continue on because all Villain’s ace-highs have picked up added equity with a wheel draw. A-4 has made the effective nuts, and A-2 has made a pair with the wheel draw. On this card, I think you have to shut down with your hand, especially because this card gives you no extra equity, with likely only six outs to improve against Villain’s hand (and just three if he has A-Q or A-8).

Once you get to the river, the 9 is actually a pretty good card for you to try to get ace-high to fold, because you hit a lot of top pairs, two pairs and straights on this card. If you are barreling with the correct range on the turn, Villain’s call with A-K here will be incredibly bad. However, if you are barreling with all your non-equity hands on the turn, ace-high will be winning here often enough to call down profitably.

Conclusion

Although I realized that the offsuit 2♥ on the turn was a bad card for me and my perceived range I failed, rather embarrassingly, to notice that this had generated extra equity for an A-x Villain holding with the gutshot to the wheel. If I’d realized this, I would have been far more inclined to give up on the turn – or at least checked behind, hoping to hit a six-outer. The mistake here is being overly concerned with what I can represent and not considering how the board probably looks to the Villain.

This was an excerpt from Moorman's Book of Poker, by Chris Moorman. You can win it this week in our SideKick Winter Raffles.