A Poker Hand in Action
I was discussing a hand on a poker forum this week that was quite instructive. The hand was played at NL100 full-ring and each player had over $100 in their stacks and effective stacks were $108. It was folded around to a decent reg in middle position who raised to $3.
It was then folded around to our hero who was in the small blind who re-raised to $8. The big blind folded and the original raiser popped it again by raising the minimum to $16…..our hero held Q-Q.
Before we go any further I think that it is very important to remember that game dynamics shift depending on certain variables. What this means is that what may be optimal play at one level based on typical opponents may not be optimal at another level. Also the game being full-ring or six handed makes a big difference to what is optimal play.
Differences in player stats impact this as well and I use Poker Office 5 to help me in these situations although I don’t think our hero was using the same sniffer. The stats of the pre-flop raiser were 23/20 so they had decent stats and were definitely not a loose aggressive type.
Firstly our hero raised too little from the small blind when they raised to $8. This size raise was giving too much implied odds to both the big blind and the original raiser and they could have found themselves being out of position to two players and in a very marginal situation.
But to answer this question properly you have to now put yourself into the mind of the original raiser. They have raised and then seen you not only re-raise but raise an amount that is less than the pot. This to them indicates that you not only have a strong hand but that you are also possibly value betting a big pair.
Plus, you are also re-raising out of position which is another indication that you have a powerful hand. So despite knowing this your opponent re-raises again only this time to $16 which is double the last raise! When a player bets in this way pre-flop at this level then there are really only two possible hands that are now in their range and they are AA and KK.
Their original raise could have been done with a fairly wide range but you first have to look at what range they are putting you on when you re-raise from the small blind. This range will tend to be with something like AA-JJ, AK and AQs. In fact based on the poor position of the small blind, they may even decide to call with hands like JJ and AK, AQs.
So their 3-bet from the small blind narrows their range down at this level and in full-ring. But yet the original raiser despite knowing this has still seen fit to raise again. This is starting to look like a pot committal move and a decent reg would not do this at this level with hands like AK, AQs or even JJ. Because our hero has the QQ then this reduces the possibility that their opponent has queens so that leaves aces or kings. However because the re-raise to $16 is so small and the effective stacks are still over $90 then our hero has enough pot odds and implied odds to make the call here and set mine looking to flop a queen. It may seem crazy to set mine with pocket queens but when you are looking at your opponent almost certainly holding AA or KK and you are getting implied odds to call then suddenly set mining with queens isn’t such a bad idea.
This article was written by poker pro/theorist Carl “The Dean” Sampson
