The Poker Quiz

You are playing a $1/2 NL cash game with a $300 max buy-in. You have been sitting at the table for about an hour and haven’t been able to do much. A loose-aggressive opponent opens the pot for a $12 raise in early position. A player in middle position calls as does the button. You look down at 9 7 in the big blind and make the call.

The flop comes 8 4 3. You check, the loose player leads out for $30 and action is folded around to you. You decide to make the call with your backdoor draws. The turn is the 9. You now have top pair and do not exactly know where you stand. You check and your opponent checks behind you. The river is J.

The Solution

Lead out with a bet (for about $60).

In this situation your opponent does not appear to have that much of a hand. Possibly two face cards, ace high, or a weak ace (possibly that paired the board). When the loose player bet out on the flop he could have next to anything, simply making a continuation bet. When you called on the uncoordinated board, he froze and checked behind you on the turn, not feeling confident enough about his hand to bet again. At this point, I would believe that my pair of nines is the best hand.

In this spot it is worth betting for value with your pair of nines. A bet for around half the pot of $60 would be appropriate. With the small chance that that jack helped him, or if he had been POORLY slow-playing a big hand, the $60 bet would be easy enough to get away from if he came over the top with a large raise.