Jonathan Little Makes a Hero Call With Pocket Deuces
This week's tournament hand shows me playing a much larger pot than I should have with pocket deuces. It's also an example of me making a "hero call" — that is, a river call with a relatively poor holding that really can only beat a bluff.
The blinds were 75/150 with a 25 ante and the hand began with a tight-aggressive player on my right opening from the hijack seat for 400. In the cutoff I looked down at 2♦2♥ and called, and everyone else folded.
The flop came 10♣6♦4♠ and my opponent checked. As I discuss in the video below, I could bet small here or check back. In this case I checked, and the turn was the 9♦. My opponent bet 600 (about half-pot), and I called, probably because I had some sort of live read that suggested my opponent was weak.
The river was the 10♥, pairing the board, and with 2,450 in the middle my opponent bet 1,100. Here is where I decided to make that call with my unimproved small pair.
Listen to my discussion of the decision, and see what happens:
Sometimes you just know your opponent doesn't have what he is representing. If you play enough, you may find that your reads are right more often than not. If that is the case, don't be afraid to trust them.
Jonathan Little is a professional poker player and author with over $6,600,000 in live tournament earnings. He writes a weekly educational blog and hosts a podcast at JonathanLittlePoker.com. You can follow him on Twitter @JonathanLittle.
