The Poker Quiz

You are in the early stages of a deep stack No Limit tournament. In middle position you hold Ace-Jack offsuit and open the pot with a raise to 3 times the big blind. A player in late position calls as does the big blind. The flop comes J 10 8 . The big blind checks and you lead out for 8 big bets. The player in late position folds and the big blind calls. The turn is a 2 . The big blind checks again, you bet 15bb and your opponent calls after a moment of thought. The river is a 6. The big blind checks for a third time.

The Solution

Check.

There is no reason to bet in this spot, even with top pair top kicker. No Limit Hold’em is a game of trapping and his actions are consistent with a strong hand looking to extract value. The big blind could have called the pre-flop raise with a variety of hands that could have you dominated. Checking and calling in this pattern would indicate he flopped a strong hand, possibly a straight, two pair or a very strong draw. Check it down in hopes that he was calling you with a worse hand while eliminating the possibility of getting trapped with a re-raise.