Doug Polk has been quite busy lately with his online challenge on ClubWPT Gold, but he was able to squeeze in some time to play a few live sessions at his Lodge Card Club in Texas.
The hand we’ll be looking at today comes from one of these recent sessions featuring Polk with a rather weak starting hand. However, the nit game is on, which incentivizes players to get involved with as many hands as possible to try and win a pot and avoid paying a bounty.
Often, trying to avoid that bounty ends up costing a lot of money, and this is a recent example of why deviating from the optimal preflop strategy is rarely a good idea.
Stakes are $50/$100 with a $100 big blind ante, and T1000, a Lodge regular, is the effective stack, with $26,000 to start the hand.
Preflop Action
The hand starts with T1000, opening to $300 from Under the Gun with A♣K♣. Doug Polk is in the UTG+2 position, and he makes the call with 10♠3♠.
Boots makes the call in hijack with K♠Q♥, and everybody else gets out of the way, so they proceed to the flop three-handed, with $1,150 in the middle.
Preflop Play Analysis
T1000 finds himself with one of the best starting hands in Texas Hold’em, and he makes a standard 3x open, so there isn’t much to talk about there.
Polk is in an early position with a really weak hand, and the only reason he decides to get in the mix is because the nit game is on.
The last person to not win a pot has to pay a bounty to all other players, so as the number of players with the nit button still in front of them decreases, the pressure grows. This is the only reason why Polk gets involved.
Boots should probably be folding. Although KQo is playable, he’s not closing the action, he doesn’t have the nit button, and it is the kind of hand that can get you in trouble, especially in a situation where players are incentivized to take non-standard lines.
That said, in a loose live cash game, calling a 3x open with two broadways is certainly not the end of the world.
Flop Action
The flop comes Q♠8♣7♥. T1000 decides not to c-bet and instead checks his option. Polk takes over the initiative and fires out for $600.
Boots makes the call with his top pair, and T1000 follows suit with his two over-cards and backdoor draws, so they are still three-handed to the turn with $2,950 in the pot.
Flop Play Analysis
The flop isn’t ideal for a UTG raiser against two in-position players, so T1000’s decision to check is not bad. With over-cards and backdoors, he can certainly c-bet some percentage of the time on this board, but checking to control the pot size is very reasonable.
Polk doesn’t have much going for him on this flop, but he can pick up some good barreling cards on the turn. With the original raiser checking, it’s a good opportunity to take a small stab and see what happens.
For Boots, it’s an easy call with a good top pair. He could also raise here to try and define the hand a bit better, but he still has T1000 to act behind, and it’s not impossible that his opponent would check some strong hands on this flop as well, like AA or QQ.
Closing the action and getting great pot odds, T1000 certainly wants to call and see the turn, as there are quite a few good cards he can catch.
Turn Action
The J♣ rolls on the turn, so the board now reads Q♠8♣7♥J♣. T1000 picks up a lot of equity but decides to play in flow and checks again.
Polk picks up a gutshot and fires a big bet of $3,600. Boots doesn’t take long to fold his top pair. With his newly-found equity and drawing to the nuts in a couple of ways, T1000 makes the call, bringing the pot to $10150.
Turn Play Analysis
Once T1000 checks, Polk has a decision to make. His opponents didn’t show a lot of strength on the flop, so a big turn bet could do the trick. He would rather see a spade roll on the turn, but a gutshot draw gives him at least some equity to fall back on.
Boots folds his top pair, and although it is the best hand at the moment, this seems like the best decision. This hand looks like it could get off the rails, and you don’t want to get yourself in a spot where you have to face what could be a huge barrel on the river with just a pair.
T1000 could certainly raise in this spot. However, Polk’s betting is telling the story that he has a big hand or he’s bluffing. If he has a big hand, he’s not folding, and at this point, T1000 still only has ace high. If Doug is bluffing, raising gives him a way out.
So, calling and playing the river seems like a solid plan, although things can get complicated if T1000 misses completely and Polk fires again.
River Action
The river is the 6♣, completing the board of Q♠8♣7♥J♣6♣ and bringing in the backdoor flush.
T1000 checks for one final time, and Polk decides to empty the clip with a big overbet of $22,000. Naturally, T1000 beats him into the pot with the absolute nuts to win the $54,050 in the middle.
River Play Analysis
Although the river gives T1000 the nuts, his best play is to check and let Polk continue bluffing or perhaps value bet a worse hand.
Polk is in a tricky spot with just a ten high. After betting big on the turn, this is not a bad situation to polarize his river bet, as he could have backed into the clubs flush. If that had happened, he would have used a large sizing, so it only makes sense to do it with his bluffs.
Unfortunately, his opponent is holding a hand he’s trying to represent, so the pot goes the other way, and he still doesn’t get rid of his nit button.
