Hand 1: 14th Jan

This week was Dice14 playing four tables of $2/4NL on Full Tilt.

Hand 1

This hand caused quite a lot of discussion. We've annotated it with our thoughts as the hand played out, and we've added the thoughts after discussion underneath.


Stack sizes:
UTG: $1022
Hero: $458.90

Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is Button with Qh Qd
UTG raises to $14, 2 folds, Hero raises to $48, 2 folds, UTG raises to $149, Hero calls.

This opponent is an aggressive regular. He made a pretty quick 4-bet from UTG to our BTN 3-bet. Here, we'd expect his UTG 4-betting range to be fairly strong as we'd expect him to assume our 3-betting range is strong. We elect to call looking for a non A/K flop.


Flop: 7d 6d 9c ($304, 2 players)
UTG bets $333, Hero folds.

The timing of his bet (insta), and the fact that our hand looks like QQ/JJ, led us to make a fold here. He can't expect us to be folding anything after we call pre-flop, so he's very likely to have QQ beat here.


Uncalled bets: $333 returned to UTG.

Results:
Final pot: $304


In hindsight, we think that a decision needs to be made pre-flop when he 4-bets. Either we're ahead of his range or we're behind, and we should shove or fold accordingly. The problem with calling a 4-bet is that you have such a tiny range for doing so. What would anyone call this 4-bet with other than AA-JJ? AK will shove pre-flop as it wants to see five cards. JJ may fold quite often, KK will probably shove more often than calling, so that leaves AA and QQ as out main range. Most people would probably just shove AA, that leaves ou range as something like QQ, AA, JJ, KK (in rough order of frequency).

Now, that is a strong range, but it allows our opponent to play well post-flop really. If he was 4-bet bluffing he can check-fold or bet if he hits hard. If he was 4-betting for value, he's able to make a decent decision post-flop. The only way to counter this small range is to make it wider. However, I don't think widening our 4-bet calling range is going to be particularly profitable. Therefore, never calling a 4-bet is probably the best way to go.