Jonathan Little Hand of the Week – Flopping Quads & Getting Paid

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The hand I’ll be looking at today comes from a big televised final table, with players playing for hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money.

There is no bad time to flop quads, but when it happens in this scenario, that’s the stuff poker dreams are made of.

That’s exactly what happens in this hand, as Jesse Lonis flops quad sevens in a pot against Chris Brewer, a competent and aggressive player.

But can he get paid with such a big hand?

The tournament is down to three players, and the action begins with Lonis picking up 7♥7♦ in the small blind, starting with about 30 big blinds.

He makes the raise to 225,000 (blinds are 30,000/60,000), and Chris Brewer, with 1.5 million in chips, defends with Q♥J♠.

The Flop

The dealer spreads an absolutely magical flop for Lonis, as it comes 7♠7♣5♠, giving him quads and the absolute nuts.

Lonis still decides to continue the aggression, betting out for 110,000. I think checking is the best play on this texture, as Jesse would likely limp in with many of his medium-connected hands, but betting small, as he does here, is also fine.

Chris Brewer makes the call, and you might be surprised to see this as he has “air.”

But, with two over-cards, a backdoor flush draw, and getting such great pot odds, you simply can’t fold on this flop.

If you fold too often to small bets in these scenarios, you’ll simply get run over in the long run, and Brewer is not the type of player to allow this.

The Turn

The 9♦ comes on the turn, and what do you think is the best play here? Should he check, potentially looking to get a check-raise in, or bet again?

Lonis elects to check, and I agree with this play.

He should check 100% of the time here, giving Brewer every possible chance to bet. The only argument against checking is if he thinks that Chris will check behind with many marginal made hands.

getting paid with flopped quads

When checked to, Brewer goes for a bet of 250,000, and that bet makes sense. On this particular board, your opponent will have a lot of weak hands that will simply fold to a turn bet, giving you the pot.

Of course, for Lonis, the only thing he should ever do in this spot is call and give Chris every opportunity to bluff on the river or over-value a weaker made hand – and that’s exactly what he does.

The River

The river comes Q♠, and Lonis decides to lead out for 325,000, which I don’t particularly like. Brewer has a nice stack to shove on the river, for value and as a bluff alike.

When a spade comes on the river, bringing in the flush, Chris will likely be jamming with a lot of his holdings.

Perhaps there is some merit to betting small and trying to extract some value from a pair of nines, but if you know your opponent will float a lot of flops and bluff a lot on turns, he is simply going to have a lot of unpaired hands here.

And, when he happens to river a strong hand, as is the case here, he will almost always move all in for value.

But facing this lead, what does Chris Brewer do? Does he just call, or does he jam his stack in the middle still? Check out the video above to find out!

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Jonathan Little is a two-time WPT champion with more than $7 million in live tournament winnings and best-selling author of multiple poker strategy books. If you want to learn from the best and increase your edge at the tables, make sure to get your FREE 3-day pass and check his training site at pokercoaching.com