The successful Banco Casino Championship took place earlier this week, and we brought you a live stream of the final table. It also featured pro Peter Jesko, who shares with you his take on three key hands.
Hand 1: Blind vs blind A8 vs TT
I'm on SB with A c 8 h, everyone has folded in front of me, there is a passive player on BB whose stack I counted at around 23 BB. There are several ways to play this spot. Against an aggressive opponent, I would probably choose to raise with the intention of matching a possible all-in. Against this particular opponent, I decided to just call for 2 reasons:
- I wasn't sure what I would do against a possible all-in. I didn't anticipate that my opponent would bluff there and therefore I wouldn't want to call. On the other hand, the prospect of throwing away A8 for 23BB in a blinds duel didn't look appealing either.
- The second reason was that I wanted to raise a lot of weaker hands against this particular player, and I didn't want him to get the feeling that I was raising his blind all the time because he might adjust to that. I also took into account that if we get to the showdown and he sees that I limped A8, he will respect my limps and not attack them too much, which may help me realize equity of my weaker hands in the future.
My opponent opted for a relatively small raise, less than 3 BB. Of course, I can't throw away such a strong hand, the question is whether to call or re-raise. In my experience this type of player often has a relatively strong hand in these sizings, but usually not top of the range. Often he may have something like K-J in his hand, which is behind. If I call, my hand will be very difficult to play out of position, against strong hands I will probably still lose a bigger pot, weaker hands have a solid chance of outdrawing me, and there is a possibility of my opponent bluffing me out on an unfavorable board.
Therefore, I decide to play all-in. I am denying equity to weaker hands, getting rid of positional disadvantage, I can imagine my opponent folding hands like 33 or A9. And if I get called, I still have about a 30% chance of winning. So I played all-in, my opponent had T h T d and called, luckily I hit the nut flush. Considering that with such a strong hand like he hesitate for the moment and didn't snap call, in retrospect I think his range was even tighter than I expected. If I got into this spot again with this information, I probably would have preflop chosen a raise with the plan to fold to a possible all-in.
Hand 2: Dream card on turn T8 vs QJ
On the button I have T s 8 c. Given that the player in the small blind is very passive, this hand is a clear open. I am called by the aforementioned small blind.
Flop: Q c J s 5 c
Given that my opponent is playing tight passive, this flop hits his range very well. Therefore, after his check, I decide to check as well. This subsequently turned out to be very important, as my opponent had 2 pair and I assumed that if I bet, I would get a raise and have to fold.
Turn: 9 d
The dream card that completes my straight. My opponent bets 1.5M into a pot of 3.4M and has around 8M behind. In a spot like this, slowplay seems like a very good option in theory, since I have position and my hand doesn't need much protection. However, I assumed that my opponent's range would be very strong, so I decided to get my money in as soon as possible so that a scary card (like a third club) wouldn't come on the river and prevent me from winning all of his chips. Therefore, I decided to raise to 4M. My opponent was very strong indeed with top 2 pair and went all in. I obviously called. The river didn't bring him a full house, so I won a very nice pot.
Hand 3: Elimination 88 vs JJ
There is not much to write about this hand. We played 3-handed, the effective stack was about 40 BB. I raised from the button 8 c 8 s my opponent from the small blind re-raised me. My opponent was a good aggressive player. This type of player will 3-bet quite often in this situation. Therefore, even against his 3bet range, 88 is doing relatively well. If I call, this hand will be very difficult to play postflop unless I catch a set, all-in is the standard play here. I have a decent chance of getting a fold from him and winning a big pot preflop. If I get a call, often it will be AK or AQ against which I am a slight favorite. I went all-in, unfortunately I ran into a J d J s. Against some passive players I can imagine playing this hand differently for exploitative reasons, against this particular opponent I think it was the right move.