Hand from EPT Monaco - wielding a big stack

OzExorcist

OzExorcist

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Did a couple of these during the Aussie Millions this year and people seemed to like them, so I'll give it another bash :)

This is a hand that happened yesterday. It's late on Day 4 of the 5-day European Poker Tour grand final in Monaco. Only 12 players are left at two tables, and the next one out receives almost $160K prize money.

Blinds are 10,000 / 20,000 with a 2000 ante, and both tables are six-handed.

We'll plonk ourselves in the seat of tournament chip leader Glen Chorny at the feature table, where we've got a healthy 2.6 million chips in front of us.

Antonio Esfandiari, who has about 1.5 million chips and has been amongst the tournament leaders since Day 3, makes a standard raise from under the gun. Action folds to us in late position, where we find ourselves with
qc.gif
qh.gif
.

We've been pushing the table about a bit with our big stack, and about 20 minutes ago we pushed Esfandiari out of a decent sized pot after we both called an UTG player's opening raise, he lead at the flop and we dropped a massive raise on him. Joe Hachem is on our immediate left and on a short stack.

So - what's our action?
 
C

CfPoker

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reraise it to 180,000.

if hachem goes ott - call, as long as antonio doesn't go ott of that. if antonio calls then call too, hoping to check it down.

if hachem folds and antonio reraises then probably fold it
 
Steveg1976

Steveg1976

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If we have been the table bully then a reraise by another player does not necessarily mean as much as if we just playing normally. So raise it up, hopefully there will be a raise and a call then we pull the squeeze play but we actually have a hand to do it with and 3 bet possibly pushing them off (hopefully) a massive pot and we have the cards to back up our move in this spot. I hope that makes sense.
 
Melkor

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Yeah, we must re-raise here to 180-200,000. If Hachem behind shoves and Esfandiari flat calls then we look again at our position as that would suggest a massive hand from Antonio. Still, we shouldn't assume Hachem will shove and we should re-raise.
 
OzExorcist

OzExorcist

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OK, so that's three votes for "raise it" so far. Any other thoughts before we take the next step?
 
OzExorcist

OzExorcist

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Guess not then :p

Results, for anyone interested: Chorny flat calls and Hachem folds, along with the blinds.

We proceed to flop a set on a QJx flop (x may be an A, doing this from memory), then turn a boat with another jack, value bet down to the river and get Esfandiari to pay us off. On the river he actually says "You've either got a boat or nothing" before mucking his hand.

More than anything else I thought this was an interesting exercise in noting table patterns and managing your own table image: notice Chorny followed exactly the same line as he did when he last 'stole' a pot from Antonio - he flat called an EP raise from position, then bet like he was bullying, probably knowing that Antonio wasn't going to let himself be pushed around again.
 
Steveg1976

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Like you said that is a perfect example of expoiting your image at the table.
 
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deathduck

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The call was fine but I like a re-raise PF. I would rather win the pot here than deal with an A or K high flop. It could have even worked out better, Esfandiari is such a degenerate he would call after being pushed around here 90%. With a such a nice flop we may have stacked him if he connected.
 
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