Hand Discussion #11: My Thoughts
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The comments were great on this blind versus blind no-limit hand. To recap, here’s the action so far:
It’s a $0.50-$1 game, and the villain has $109 (and I have him covered). Everyone folds to me in the small blind, and I make it $3.50 to go with A
5
. The big blind calls. I would say that the big blind plays in a way that I find fairly common in the 6-max $0.50-$1 games, so he’s not an atypical or bizarre player.
The flop comes 9
8
6
. I check, and the big blind checks.
The turn is the 2
. I bet $5.50 into the $7 pot, and the big blind calls.
The river is the K
.
Some commenters didn’t like the fact that I raised this hand preflop, checked the flop, and then bet 3/4 pot on the turn. Against a known tough opponent, I agree that this line could leave me a bit vulnerable, since it’s fairly obvious that the deuce didn’t help me, and my range here is generally fairly weak.
But I posted the following comment in the original thread in response to this criticism.
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Tags: Hand Reading, matt-flynn, no-limit-holdem, pnl, poker, professional-no-limit-holdem, river-play, sunny-mehta

I think I started the whole “I wouldn’t play A5″ business. I qualified it with “if he was sticky”, which I still think is good poker. Given that we don’t think he is, I like the whole line. I particularly like the delayed c-bet. That should be part of everyone’s game. I also really like the bet sizing at the end if you think he’s a single level thinker who will be scared here. Well played.