Jonathan Little's Weekly Poker Hand: Playing a Limped Pot Unconventionally
Poker pro and coach Jonathan Little has been producing a wide variety of strategy content for poker players for some time, including authoring multiple books and sharing videos and articles on his website and elsewhere, much of which is free to players of all levels seeking to improve their games.
Little started his popular "Weekly Poker Hand" series on YouTube more than five years ago, using the format to focus on particular concepts and common mistakes as illustrated in his hand analyses.
In the episode shown below, Little continues with his review of hands a student of his played in the Sunday Million on PokerStars, in this case analyzing a somewhat unusual multi-way hand that ends with an interesting bluff-or-give-up decision.
Action begins with a loose player limping in from middle position, something the player has been doing often. Another player calls from the cutoff, and Little's student is on the button where he's been dealt 9♠7♠.
As Little explains, he prefers calling in this spot which is what his student does, the small blind calls and the big blind checks, and five players all see a flop come 8♣10♦5♦.
It folds all of the way around to the button, and Little says he thinks his student should be betting here with his open-ended straight draw, although he doesn't and checks behind.
The turn is the Q♣ and it checks to the initial limper who bets the minimum — 250 into 1,520 — and the cutoff folds. It's an usual scenario and unorthodox style being displayed by the bettor, but Little recommends just calling the bet which his student does.
The big blind sticks around as well, and with 2,270 in the middle and three players left the river brings the A♦, making the final board 8♣10♦5♦Q♣A♦.
Both opponents check, and with nine-high and no diamonds Little's student has to decide whether or not to bluff or give up.
What would you do? Take a look and listen to Little's analysis of the hand and situation, which includes discussion of several concepts...
- position
- multi-way strategy
- semi-bluffing
- pot odds
- blockers (and not having them)
- bet sizing
Jonathan Little is a professional poker player and author with over $7,000,000 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.
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