Flop a Set, Check-Raised All In on the River. What Would You Do?
Flopping a set is always nice, and often when that happens your main objective becomes how to get the most value. But sometimes things get complicated as the hand progresses, which is what happened in today's hand.
It was a $3,000 buy-in event at the World Series of Poker, and with about 20,000 in my stack, I was dealt K♣K♠ in early position. The blinds were 100/200 with a 25 ante, and I raised to 550.
The player to my left called as did the button and both blinds, meaning five of us were still around to see the flop come A♣K♦10♠.
It checked to me, and with the pot almost 3,000 I bet 1,300 with my set of kings. (Looking back, I wish I'd bet a little more.) Everyone folded except the tight-aggressive player in the big blind, and I was loving my hand and the situation.
The turn was the 4♣, my lone remaining opponent checked, and I bet 2,800 (just about exactly half the pot this time). The big blind called, then the 9♣ completed the board.
My opponent checked again, and I bet 3,800 into the almost 12,000 pot. That's when the big blind surprised me by check-raising all in for his stack of more than 15,000, which was more than what I had behind. What now?
Take a look at what I chose to do and listen to my reasoning behind the decision:
Would you make the call here for your tournament life?
Jonathan Little is a professional poker player and author with over $6,700,000 in live tournament earnings. He writes a weekly educational blog and hosts a podcast at JonathanLittlePoker.com. You can follow him on Twitter @JonathanLittle.
