Answers to Limit Holdem Scenarios

Last month, I posted some scenarios regarding Fixed Limit Holdem play. Did you check them out? If so, how do you think you did? Here are my answers, which of course are not the ONLY answer.

Scenario: You are on the button with Qd-2d. Low stakes LHE with a very loose passive table. Every player has limped in ahead of you. Do you limp in here and see a flop or wait for a better situation?

You limp into this hand. You will get at least 8 to 1 on your money here and the odds of you not connecting with the flop once in eight times are pretty long. This is normally a fold hand, but in a big family pot, it can sometime flop a monster pot for you. This situation actually occurred a couple of months ago for me and I flopped the 2nd nut flush draw. The river gave me the nut flush and I took a nice pot.

Scenario: You have As-Js on the button two spots out of the money in a Limit Holdem tournament. The short stack of the tournament raises and the tightest player at your table re-raises. The short stack would only half of a bet left in his stack if you call. You have about 24 big bets in your stack. What do you do?

Notice the key words here, the TIGHEST PLAYER at your table just three-bet. Your A-J suited is either dominated or utter garbage at this point. A uber-tight player is not going to play here, especially against a short stack, unless he has a premium holding. This happened to me last year and my A-J happened to be dominated by the super-tight player AND the short stack, both holding A-K.

Scenario: Limit Holdem Sit-N-Go satellite. You are the button with two big bets left in your stack. Two people limp and a player that has shown no worse than A-K suited makes it two bets. Two players call his bet. You look down to 7d-4c. What do you do?

You fold. Many people would call and hope to pick up a monster pot, but you are looking at likely a strong hand and two other opponents to beat. Since you have the button, you have a few hands to try and pick up something more respectable than 7-4 offsuit.

Scenario: $5-$10 LHE game. You have Ac-2s. The board falls 3c-4c-5c-Kd-Qd. At the river, the pot is capped and your opponent shows 6d-7d for top straight. You flip over your A-2 in disgust and the dealer declares you with a flush and scoops up the cards and pushes the pot. Nobody says a word. What do you do?

This is a clear case of whether you are an honest player. If you are an honest player, you correct the dealer and send the player who actually won the hand the pot. While being honest is not always profitable, it will pay off huge dividends in your image and how people respect you.

Scenario: $2 – $4 Holdem. You are in a three way pot. Player 1 only raises with A-Q and up and pocket 10′s and up. They only call with small pocket pairs and A-J. Player two has a wider range of raising hands but if they are in the hand after the turn they either have a very strong hand or a draw. You hold Kd-Qc in the small blind and come in to no raise pre-flop. The board runs out K-4-4-Q-Q. At the river, action is checked to you, you bet, player 1 raises, player 2 calls, you reraise, and player 1 caps. This question has three parts. A: Do you call? B: What does player 1 have? C: What does player 2 have?

A. Only two hands beat you here, pocket kings and pocket fours. You have to call here.
B. Player one likely has pocket aces or A-K. Had he had another hand, he would have raised.
C. This player is very tricky. Based on the action, I will put him either on the same hand as myself or something like A-Q. He definitely has a full-house. I don’t think he would have slow played pocket kings on the turn.

What actually happened: In reality, the flop of this hand was checked. On the turn, I bet out and was called by both opponent. The action went as described above and Player 2 folded to the capped bet. I made the call and player one turned over pocket fours for flopped quads. I shook his hand for a great hand. I never put him on fours.

Scenario: LHE satellite. You have pocket kings and raised pre-flop. You bet the flop of Ad-4d-Jc, the turn 6c, and the river falls the Jd. Two players stay until the river. At the river, instead of action being checked to you, the first opponent bets out and the 2nd player folds. What do you do here?

I make the call here. There are 8.5 big bets in the pot at the river. Yes, there are possibilities of a full house, flush, set, and even an a pair of aces, but the odds justify the call.

In reality, this scenario has went both ways. Sometimes you call and your kings are good. Sometimes you have lost the hand. However, you only need to be right once in eight tries to be profitable. You call here.

Hopefully this has been of some benefit to you. As I stated, my answers are not the ONLY answer and you are welcome to debate me in comments. Good luck to you at the tables.

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