Limit Quiz
In this months quiz, you will be seated in a $50-$100 game of Limit Texas Hold’em online. The game started six handed and one player has left the table reducing that number to five. You are not overly fond of short handed play and would rather play in full ring games but you decide to wait and see if any other players turn up to play. You also decide to leave the table if it gets any less than five handed as aggressive short handed play does not suit your normal solid style.
You are under the gun in this five handed game but just at that precise moment, another player leaves the game and another sits out. Both these players are on your immediate left but before you have a chance to leave the table, your very next hand has been dealt and it is the Ad-9d. The player in the small blind is quite passive which is unusual for a game like this but the player in the big blind is very loose and aggressive and can be very tricky. All three of you have ample sized stacks so what is your play?
RAISE 10 POINTS
CALL 5 POINTS
FOLD 0 POINTS
You must raise as you are now on the button, in fact there would have been a case for raising even if the game had still been six handed as being under the gun in a six handed game equates to being in middle position in a full ring game and it has been folded around to you. You likely have the best hand with an A-9 against what are two random blind hands. You also need to knock out the small blind who would be receiving pot odds of 5/1 if you call and you cannot allow this to happen.
Do not be put off by the aggressive player in the big blind, that aggression could be their downfall when you play your hand correctly. I have seen many people fold in these situations and they do it because they do not want to get involved in a short handed game even if it is only just for one hand only. But I think that is faulty logic as any six handed game is unlikely to stay six handed all the time and especially online where players come and go all the time. Also, situations that mimic short handed play crop up constantly in full ring games anyway so you simply cannot avoid short handed action.
You raise to $100 and the small blind folds and the big blind three bets to $150, there is $275 in the pot so far so what is your play?
CALL 10 POINTS
RAISE 7 POINTS
FOLD 0 POINTS
Surely you did not fold, with $275 in the pot and only $50 to you then pot odds of over five to one are too great plus your opponent is ultra aggressive anyway. The choice is between calling and raising and I swing towards calling. Your opponent has obviously signalled their intention to take the lead. Either they have a hand that merits three betting or they don’t or maybe they don‘t believe you.
But at the end of the day an A-9 is marginal now that it has been three bet and your opponents hand just could be superior to yours but you have to doubt it at this stage based on their history so far in the game. I don’t like to escalate the pot too high in situations like this against very aggressive opponents because you can end up going for a lot of bets in a very short space of time when your opponent hits a run of cards. So you call making the pot $325 at this stage and the flop comes 8d-4s-2c missing you completely, your opponent checks, what is your play?
CHECK 10 POINTS
BET 7 POINTS
Let me get one thing absolutely straight here, betting is certainly not wrong but given the mechanics of the situation and the type of player that my opponent is then I would lean towards checking it back for the following reasons. Your opponent wanted the lead before the flop or they had a real hand, either way a flop check by them looks dubious to me when you factor in that they are a very tricky and aggressive player so why are they checking?
It is possible that they could be looking to check raise because their hand is good or because their hand is garbage and they are attempting to lever you off the hand either on the turn or the river. But the A-9 could just be the best hand and you don’t want this very tricky and aggressive opponent bluff raising and putting you to a very difficult test and getting you to lay down the best hand which would be a tremendous coup for them.
If your opponent has missed this flop and you are ahead then they are unlikely to overtake you on the turn and you are not exactly risking the entire pot as a flop bet is highly unlikely to take the pot at this stage anyway and especially in a $50-$100 game with an aggressive tricky opponent like this. This is entering into psychological warfare at its best. So you check it back and the turn card comes 7d making a board of 8d-4s-2c-7d giving you the added outs of a flush draw as well. Your opponent bets $100 into the $325 pot making the pot size $425, what is your play?
RAISE 10 POINTS
CALL 8 POINTS
FOLD 0 POINTS
Despite the fact that your opponents flop check is dubious in my mind, I still like raising here. As I have already stated, this player is aggressive and tricky and if you can get through this one opponent then the pot will be yours. You will be calling this bet anyway but raising here may be your one and only chance to take this pot without having to show the best hand after the river card.
If you folded then go and play something else, probably checkers or something because poker is not your game. Calling is not bad but if you call now then you are calling on the river so why not raise? If they re-raise then you still have many outs with which to improve to the best hand. So you raise to $200 and your opponent calls the raise making the pot size $725. The river card is the 4c making a final board of 8d-4s-2c-7d-4c. Your opponent checks on the river, what is your play?
CHECK 10 POINTS
BET 3 POINTS
Checking is the play here. If you have the worse hand then betting will only cost you money as your opponent is not going to let an $800 pot go lightly. But once again we have a very aggressive and tricky opponent checking and showing passivity. It would be infuriating to bet and run into a raise. You would then be wondering if your opponent was bluff raising you and folding the best hand would be a disaster. But then again so would calling and wasting $200 on the river when your opponent shows the best hand. You have a decent sized ace to showdown which may be the best hand so check it. You check and take the pot without seeing your opponents hand. Now let us have a look at how well you scored.
50 points Great score…..if you are being honest!
40-48 points Excellent, you are no ones fool are you!
30-39 points Be careful, you need to be better than this at $50-$100
20-29 points I advise sticking to low limits if I were you.
11-19 points Were you drunk when you took this test?
10 points Is it possible to be that bad?
