Going for Thin Value With Second Pair on a Scary Board
Here's another hand from that $5,000 buy-in no-limit hold'em World Series of Poker event from which we've been reviewing hands, this one involving a blind-versus-blind confrontation between myself and a similarly deep-stacked opponent.
The blinds were 600/1,200 with a 200 ante, and with the effective stacks about 100 BBs it folded around to me in the small blind where I had been dealt J?7?.
As I discuss in the video below, I talk about the importance of not instinctively folding in a spot like this, even if your opponent in the big blind is a strong player.
Ed. note: See "Athanasios Polychronopoulos on Taking a Stand in Blind-vs.-Blind Battles" where Polychronopoulos makes a similar point about not being so quick to give the big blind walks.
I limped, then my opponent �� a good, loose-aggresive player �� raised to 4,000. Recognizing the pot odds and how J?7? is in fact a hand with some potential equity, I called the raise and the flop came K?6?2?.
We both checked, then the J? turn gave me top pair and we checked again. The river 10? completed the board, and here is where I had to decide whether or not to go for some thin value by betting my pair of jacks even though the board is quite scary.
Watch and listen to how I discuss the situation and my thinking, and see how things turned out when I did bet:
Do you typically find yourself checking or betting in these situations? Let me know in a comment below.
Jonathan Little is a professional poker player and author with over $6,800,000 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..
