Going for Thin Value With Second Pair on a Scary Board
Here's another hand from that $5,000 buy-in no-limit hold'em World Series of Poker event from which we've been reviewing hands, this one involving a blind-versus-blind confrontation between myself and a similarly deep-stacked opponent.
The blinds were 600/1,200 with a 200 ante, and with the effective stacks about 100 BBs it folded around to me in the small blind where I had been dealt J♦7♦.
As I discuss in the video below, I talk about the importance of not instinctively folding in a spot like this, even if your opponent in the big blind is a strong player.
Ed. note: See "Athanasios Polychronopoulos on Taking a Stand in Blind-vs.-Blind Battles" where Polychronopoulos makes a similar point about not being so quick to give the big blind walks.
I limped, then my opponent — a good, loose-aggresive player — raised to 4,000. Recognizing the pot odds and how J♦7♦ is in fact a hand with some potential equity, I called the raise and the flop came K♣6♣2♠.
We both checked, then the J♠ turn gave me top pair and we checked again. The river 10♠ completed the board, and here is where I had to decide whether or not to go for some thin value by betting my pair of jacks even though the board is quite scary.
Watch and listen to how I discuss the situation and my thinking, and see how things turned out when I did bet:
Do you typically find yourself checking or betting in these situations? Let me know in a comment below.
Jonathan Little is a professional poker player and author with over $6,800,000 in live tournament earnings. He writes a weekly educational blog and hosts a podcast at JonathanLittlePoker.com. Sign up to learn poker from Jonathan for free at PokerCoaching.com. You can follow him on Twitter @JonathanLittle..
