Lex Veldhuis recently played a hand on PokerStars in the $215 Bounty Builder which got a lot of attention on Twitter. Here, the PokerStars Ambassador explains how it all went down.
First, check out the end of the hand below:
Now, over to Veldhuis.
LEX VELDHUIS: So, I called pre-flop against a really good opponent with J♣10♣. I cover him, which is important for the bounties, even though this is a hand I want to play versus an open anyway.
The big blind comes along as well, which is pretty important info for the dynamic on boards like this. They’re going to have a lot of 6-7, 8-9, T-9 sort of hands. It makes it harder to bluff on this kind of board for the other players here.
The board thus far
The flop is checked around and the Q♥ turn brings a one-card straight, completing the rainbow on board.
He bets half pot. In my mind, this bet could be a set, but it’s more likely he bets that on the flop, and he is going to check the turn a reasonable amount as well with a set. For me, it’s a combination of a straight, a set (small percentage), and a bluff with hands like K-9, A-K.
The moment he bets he looks pretty strong. There is a lot of J-X in my range and the big blind is going to have quite a few hands he can come along with, as I said earlier. The moment I call I look massive. I have the big blind’s range behind me left to act still. I’m most likely not calling here with A-Q or K-Q (I’d probably bet the flop with those). The big blind folds here and we see a brick on the 5♠ river.
Now he checks. I don’t think there is a situation here where a bet makes money. We already gave him a set only a small percentage of the time, and even if he has Q-Q he is not expecting me to value bet with hands weaker than top set. So the moment I bet, I’m pretty much saying I have J-X+ for value or a bluff.
With the board being rainbow (ruling out any missed flush draws) and my calling of the turn bet with the big blind behind me, in combination with betting the river, I’m going to have such an incredibly high percentage of straights that my hand becomes face up. So he can play very easily against this. He is just going to fold some random sets, fold his bluffs.
So, he folds all hands I beat, he is only going to call with some chops, and he is going to pound me with K-J. In fact, he could even do something insane forcing a chop out of the pot when he has J-X as well. That doesn’t happen a lot but calling for a chop is a terrible spot for me. All in all a bet for me makes zero sense and makes me zero money. It’s just going to give me headaches. This guy is a beast as well so I really don’t want to open the door to possible check-raising.
In this case, it really worked out.
Catch Lex Veldhuis on his Twitch channel: https://twitch.tv/lexveldhuis
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