Participants:
(1) Steve Holden – a professional player of approximately two years from Birmingham in the West Midlands. Steve is a former GCBPT champion having won the Nottingham leg.
(2) Neil Blatchly – Neil is a live tournament player from Leicester, and the only man to have won both a GCBPT and APAT title.
Part One - Steve’s Hand:
History: It was the DTD £300 monthly deep stack freezeout. The blinds were at 50/100 so we’re only into level two of the tournament. Steve had been doing a “bit of fishing”, so his stack had dropped to below average at this point to 7,550. His opponent was Nicola Jones, wife of occasional circuit player Mick Jones. Her image is tight, so her preflop raising range is small. She had a stack of around 9,800.
The Hand: The action folded around to Nicola who raised to 400 on the button. Steve made the call from the big blind with pocket fours and checked in the dark. On the Kc-8h-4c flop, she continuation bet 425 and Steve raised to 1,100. She raised again, this time to 3,200. Steve made it 5,700, she moved all in and Steve immediately called the extra 1,450.
Neil’s Analysis:
Preflop: Steve obviously knows the player involved so has previous experience to call on for making his plays. Firstly, I’m never folding preflop here; for an extra 300 more I’m always making up and occasionally reraising, but as Steve says she is a rock, I’m just flat calling.
The blind-check: The check in the dark probably works differently against different players and their respective standards of play. Personally, I think the check in the dark is a sign of weakness and I really don’t like the move. I estimate that 90 percent of the time the player is holding a small pocket pair or suited connectors; I have yet to see anyone check dark holding aces or kings. Judging by the description, Nicola is quite a tight player and not someone who would button raise and continuation bet a wide range. The general standard in this particular event isn’t strong and a lot of the field simply play their hands.
Flop: Once I’ve flopped the set, I’m never leading out into an ABC tight player. You wouldn’t receive any bad action from them and if they have a strong hand, you will still get paid by checking first. Nicola's initial bet of 425 looks incredibly weak here seeing as the pot is around the 850 mark on a flushing board and therefore I would try to put a weak looking check-raise in. I think for Steve to get paid he has to try and build the pot as big as possible before any scare cards come to kill his action.
The three/four-bets: Once Nicola three-bets to 3,200, I don’t see the point of any four-bet other than the all-in. We only started the hand with 7,550 and I don’t see any player folding here once they have put 3,200 in unless they really do have air. When Steve four-bets on the flop we have to assume he has flopped a set or has a pair and a flush draw but most would simply four-bet shove on the flop with the pair/draw combination, so I think Steve’s hand is incredibly face-up. Once he gets the three-bet, he should only be ever shoving to slightly disguise his hand.
Nicola’s range: At this point I think Nicola’s range is very thin. Her range obviously includes A-A, K-K and A-K, but I think we could possibly include A-x suited and maybe A-8 suited for a pair and a flush draw. Assuming Nicola is indeed an ABC player, I would think that she would flat call Steve's raise on the flop with any kind of drawing hand and therefore probably has A-A, K-K or A-K. My guess would be that she is playing A-K in a bad way.
Conclusion: I’m not a huge fan of the check in the dark against ABC players or the four-bet raise but, other than that, I believe he has played the hand perfectly. A lot of players would flat call the flop and get their action killed by scare cards appearing on later streets.
Steve’s Analysis:
Preflop: I have to assume that I’m up against a different player here as the hand is otherwise pretty standard. Firstly I’m never folding preflop here for an extra 300 more, I’m always calling the extra. If I wanted to disguise my hand then I might actually raise here and lead out on the flop anyway.
The blind-check: Checking in the dark is not a completely bad move if I want to keep control of the size of the pot. If the flop is A-K-K then I get away from any continuation bet, and if it’s low and/or offering a straight draw of some kind, then I may see the turn for cheap. I would not advocate checking in the dark if you’re up against a loose-aggressive player.
Flop: If I hadn’t had checked in the dark, I would have led the flop for two reasons. Firstly, it disguises my set and makes me look as though I could be on a flush draw. Secondly, if my opponent has a hand like A-Q of clubs, then I don’t want to give any free cards. Also, if they have a strong flush draw, then I’d imagine they’d probably want to push me out of the pot anyhow.
As Neil says, Nicola’s continuation bet is a semi weak bet considering there is 850 in the pot. This bet tells me that the button’s not holding K-K or 8-8 which at the moment are my biggest fears. I think if she had any of those two hands with the action checked to her then she would bet a minimum of 700 with the two clubs on board. I’m aware that my opponent may have two clubs here and if she doesn’t then I certainly don’t want to see another one without getting all the chips in the middle before the turn card. When I raised her continuation bet, I was giving her 4:1 to make the call and also the opportunity to go over the top.
The three/four-bets: When she three-bet, I had 6,050 in from of me in seat seven and I wasn’t sure that she’d checked my stack size out. I didn’t want to frighten her out of the pot by announcing “all-in” as sometimes people think that they may be “calling” for their tournament. I was aware that she had more chips than me and so was happy to keep pricing her in.
I can only assume from Nicola’s shove that she clearly puts me on a draw here and has completely ruled out that she’s drawing to runner runner.
Conclusion: I think Neil’s reading of the hand is very good and accurate. The check in the dark is the wrong move and we all make it – and we shouldn’t, we’re showing weakness and giving our hand away preflop. 90 percent of the time we are folding to action on the flop, especially versus ABC players.
I’m going in set mining here or looking for a 3-5-6/2-3-5 type flop. Therefore, because I’m drawing to so few cards, two checks are a complete waste of my initial position post-flop as I then lose strength by not betting out at the flop.
The Reveal: Nicola had A-K and, not surprisingly, Steve’s hand held up.