Jonathan Little Three-Bets With a Speculative Hand and Gets Rewarded
Here's another interesting hand and situation to share with you, one coming from a €5K buy-in European Poker Tour Main Event — a hand in which I flop well, then have to decide on each postflop street how (and whether) to bet for value.
The blinds were 250/500 with a 50 ante, and I had 50,000 to start the hand. A loose-agressive young European player with close to 75,000 opened for 1,200 from the "lojack" seat (that's just to the right of the hijack), and it folded to me on the button with A♦7♦.
All options are available here — folding, calling, or reraising — and I decided to three-bet, thinking both about setting up an aggressive image for myself later on as well as liking being able to play a bigger pot with position. I made it 3,000 to go, and the raiser called.
After taking that aggressive line, I get lucky to flop two pair as the first three community cards come A♥7♥6♥. Many might worry about a flush here, but as I talk about below there aren't that many flush hands my opponent could have.
I bet 4,000 into the pot of 7,200 and get called, then continue to bet subsequent streets while going for value. See what my opponent does and what happens, and also hear my explanation of my thinking with each bet.
Would you have made the preflop three-bet with a speculative hand or would you have just called? Then after flopping two pair on a monotone board, would you have bet three times for value? 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.
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