Mon 19 Jan 2009
Pacificpoker.com – Case Study 2
Posted by Trix under Online Poker
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www.pacificpoker.com – Having been dealt pocket queens in late position, the first player to act raises it four times the size of the big blind. In this situation, your first reaction would be to feel that you have a good chance of building a pot with your strong hand. You must of course be slightly wary however, as a strong raise from early position is usually an indication of strength.
The next player to act then thinks for a little while before reraising three times the amount bet by the previous player. Some less experienced players might think this is an ideal situation to get all their chips in with a strong hand, but personally, I don’t like this situation at all. Assuming the second player who put in the reraise has a good understanding of the game, they will know, just as you do, that a strong raise from first position means strength.
So for them to put in a sizeable reraise whilst also being in an early position themselves, they must have a very strong hand to do so. If the action was then folded round to me in late position with (Q,Q) I would first look at the size of my potential opponents chipstacks. If either of them can do significant damage to the chips I have in front of me, then I really cannot see how I can get involved. It is possible of course that the original raiser will fold if I push all in, or even if I flat call, but the way this player has bet their hand in relation to their position, I do not think they have a hand they can easily fold.
Very often in this situation you will either be dominated by (K,K) or (A,A), or significantly less than 50% to be the person who ends up taking down the pot, which cannot be a good position in which to be commiting your chips.
If you have chips to work with and your opponents are shorter on chips than you, then perhaps you can make a case for seeing a flop. But if you do see a flop, an overcard on the board will almost certainly have put one of your opponents in front, and no overcard could quite easily mean you are getting yourself into far more trouble if one of those opponents holds pocket Aces or Kings.
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