Hand 4 : 4th Feb

Hand 4

I think this hand is interesting because there are so many different ways in which it can be played. It's also against the same opponent as hand 3.

Stack sizes:
Hero: $1369
BB: $1293.25

Pre-flop: (5 players) Hero is Button with 7c 9c
2 folds, Hero raises to $35, SB folds, BB raises to $120, Hero calls.

The BB is an aggressive regular who 3-bets fairly often. Here I decide to call with 97s and play a flop. I'm planning on using my position to take some pots away from him. Folding here is obviously fine. I would pretty much never 4-bet as my hand plays too well post-flop to turn it into a bluff, and I think calling with position is a much better option than getting involved in a pre-flop war.


Flop: 2s 3h 9d ($245, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks.

This is a good flop for me and he checks. Given the hand I'd just played against him (hand 3), I wasn't sure what he was going to do if I bet. I will definitely bet here sometimes, but I prefer to bet when I'm confident in knowing what to do to a check-raise. Here I wasn't, so I elected to check behind.

Turn: Jc ($245, 2 players)
BB bets $170, Hero calls.

The turn brings an overcard and he bets. This isn't necessarily bad for me. The way I look at it, he can have a maximum of two overcards to the board. Five different overcards can hit, and I believe he'll bet all of them. That means that I can call the turn and be correct at least 60% of the time. The downside is that the river will be a tough decision but, in the words of Dice, "That's why we get paid good money to do this job".


River: Tc ($585, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks.

The river gave me a horrible feeling when he checked. I said at the time that I really felt like turning my hand into a bluff, despite having showdown value. I decided not to as I do have showdown value and the only hands I can get to fold are Tx hands (and he might not even fold them). He can also have a J here and he'll never fold that. I really felt like he had showdown value when he checked though, and I think his showdown value will almost always be better than a pair of 9s.


Results:
Final pot: $585

BB showed Ah Td
Hero mucks 7c 9c