Jonathan Little Overplays Top Pair With a Flush Draw
Back to the 2017 World Series of Poker again for another hand from the $5,000 buy-in six-handed no-limit hold'em event, this one coming a little later in the tournament when the blinds were 1,200/2,400 with a 400 ante.
Action began with a player in the cutoff who after starting with about 85,000 opened with a raise to 5,200. The button also had about 85,000 to begin and called the raise. I was next to act in the small blind where I had a stack of close to 180,000 and had been dealt A♥3♥.
This is a spot where I could certainly either call or three-bet, and in this case I chose just to call. The big blind folded, and the flop came A♠Q♥4♥ — great for me, giving me a pair of aces plus the nut-flush draw.
I checked and the original raiser bet 11,200, about half the pot. The button called.
This is an interesting spot. I see merits to shoving here, though if I go all in and get called I'm usually going to be up against an opponent with a better ace than mine. I think if I were playing this hand today I might just check-call, but in this case I decided to shove.
Take a look at the hand and listen to my explanation of the pros and cons of the play and how I assess the situation:
As I say, this was probably an error because when I make this shove I'm usually only getting called when I'm behind. In other words, instead of playing a medium-sized pot while behind, I played a big pot while behind.
Jonathan Little is a professional poker player and author with over $6,500,000 in live tournament earnings. He writes a weekly educational blog and hosts a podcast at JonathanLittlePoker.com. You can follow him on Twitter @JonathanLittle.
