Getting Out of Line With an Underpair in a Three-Bet Pot
Today's hand comes from a tournament I played last summer and involves me making a play that I virtually never make, which means the hand is an interesting one to look back on and analyze.
It was early in the tournament, with the blinds at 50/100. I had about 18,000 to begin while the two other opponents in the hand were both at 25,000, meaning we were all deep.
A 40-year old player opened for 300 from middle position, then a younger player who was loose-aggressive called from the button. I looked down at J♥J♠ in the small blind and called, although as I discuss in the video below three-betting would work here as well.
It was three-handed to the A♥K♠9♣ flop, then, and with those two overcards out there I checked. The original raiser checked as well, then the loose-aggressive player bet 1,600 into the 4,450 pot.
It was here I decided to take an overly aggressive line and check-raised to 4,000 with my underpair. Take a look and listen to my reasons for making this frisky play in this spot and see what happens:
Sometimes you just know your opponent is bluffing! Do you ever get out of line and make extremely exploitive plays like this? Let me know in a comment below.
Jonathan Little is a professional poker player and author with over $6,300,000 in live tournament earnings. He writes a weekly educational blog and hosts a podcast at JonathanLittlePoker.com. You can follow him on Twitter @JonathanLittle.
