The Hand
This hand is from a NL tournament I played at the Cherokee Casino in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We started with 4000 in chips and I was at a table with some extremely inexperienced players. Two or three had never played in a tournament before.
I was building my chip stack. It was at around 9,000 and we were in level 6 with blinds at 200/400 with a 50 ante. I was in late position and looked down at Kd/Qd. There were two limpers before me and I raised it to 1500. All folded back to the BB who called. The two limpers folded and we were heads up.
The flop was Qc/2d/4h. Very nice flop. The BB checked and it was up to me. There was over 4000 in the pot already. Do I slow play? Do I bet big?
Winner: Doug B., Mount Airy, Maryland
I wouldn’t slow play this hand. It’s not as safe as it would appear. You should make a continuation bet of about $2000 to see where you are at – reason being the big blind is most likely protecting his blind with a small pair or suited connectors. He would have raised with a premium hand or a middle pair, but would want to see a flop with a small pair or a drawing hand. So there is a chance that he has hit this flop.
Make the bet, see what his reaction is and then make a judgment on the turn. If he quick calls you or re-raises you are in trouble and looking at trips. If he looks to be calculating his odds and calls, you got him on a draw. If he is inexperienced he will most likely fold. You wouldn’t slow play it because no matter what you do (bet or slow play), you will be advertising that you have queens and you wont gain any more money by slowing down. If you allow them to catch up, it’s most likely going to beat you. If they don’t make a hand, they will fold when you do finally bet.
Robin’s Response:
Okay, here’s how it went down. I did bet out $2000 and after much consideration the BB reluctantly called. The turn was a 7d. My hand was looking better and better. I now had the flush draw in addition to top pair. The BB checked again. There was just over 8000 in the pot. I had approximately 5500 left and went all in.
Even though I liked my hand, I’d still like to take the pot down right now!
The BB looked like she was in pain and had only 3000 left and made the call. She turned over 3/6c and had been drawing to a gut shot straight the whole time (good for me, bad for her). The river was a king and I picked up a big pot and had almost doubled my stack.
