Poker Check Nuts River
The Nuts can refer to the best possible hand in any street, but the official nuts is determined by the river or the final street. For example, Pocket Aces (AA) would be the nuts on a flop of Ah Th 2s. However, the turn and river could bring cards such as another heart that would change the best possible hand.
- Mar 17, 2008 The nuts on the river is any hand where you know you cannot be beat. So if the board is AA378, either AA or A8 is the nuts. Technically AA is a better hand, but if you have A8, no one can have AA, so you still have the nuts (though in this case with the possibility of a chop).
- Again, if the players are allowed to check behind to see their oppenents hand, or to bet the minimum to induce a bluff, then there cant be a rule for checking the nuts in position. Just to confuse things further, if its a satelite and its on the bubble and a player was to check behind with the nuts, this would be soft play and worthy of a penalty.
Today I want to share another hand from the same recent €5K European Poker Tour event from which we've looked at some other hands in recent weeks. Among the decisions this one presents is one on the river where I have the nuts must decide how much I should bet in order to try to get the most value.
The blinds were 200/400 with a 50 ante, and I began the hand with about 45,000. The action began with the player on my right opening to 1,000 from middle position. He had about 29,000 to begin the hand, and is the same player against whom I folded a full house in last week's hand.
Poker Check Nuts River Nj
I was dealt in the hijack seat and I just called. As I explain below, this might look a little conservative, but I give a few reasons for why just calling here is okay (even though generally speaking I'd probably three-bet 85 percent of the time).
Everyone else folded, and the flop came . My opponent led with a bet of 1,200 and I called. The turn brought the and this time my opponent checked. I made a speculative turn bet of 2,200 and he called — again, see the video where I talk about the merits of checking or betting this turn.
With nearly 10,000 in the middle the river brought the , luckily giving me a backdoor Broadway straight, and my opponent checked again.
Here comes that question about value betting — how much should I bet? Watch below to see what I did and what happened:
Do you usually make a large or small bet with the nuts on the river? When your opponent check-raises all in on the river, do you take one second to call or three seconds?
Jonathan Little is a professional poker player and author with over $6,300,000 in live tournament earnings. He writes a weekly educational blog and hosts a podcast at JonathanLittlePoker.com. You can follow him on Twitter @JonathanLittle.
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This hand is from the $1,111 buy-in Little One Drop event that took place during the 2015 World Series of Poker. This event attracted a huge field of 4,555 people. I managed to take 67th place for $7,215, which is always nice! When playing a tournament that consists of mostly amateur players, it is important to get full value when you are fortunate enough to flop a strong hand. Don’t let your opponent off the hook by slow playing.
With blinds at 150/300 with a 25 ante, a tight, passive lady with an 18,000 stack limped from first position. A Brazilian guy with 8,000 limped from third position, and another tight player with 25,000 limped from fourth position. Everyone else folded around to me, with a 22,000 stack, and I looked down at 9c-9s. While most players raise in this spot, I was suspicious that the initial limper could be slow playing a premium hand, looking to limp-reraise. Always try to differentiate between limpers who limp with a range containing both strong and weak hands, and those who limp only with hands that are not strong enough to raise. In this spot, I assumed the first position lady could easily be trapping, so I limped. The small and big blind limped as well.
The flop came Qh-10h-9d. The blinds checked, the lady bet 500 into the 2,025 pot, and the Brazilian called. The fourth position player folded. While I could certainly be crushed by a straight or larger set, I assumed I had the best hand a large percentage of the time. I did not want to call because there are numerous bad turn cards that could easily reduce the value of my hand, namely any heart, King, Jack, or 8. I also did not want to make a huge raise because I thought my opponents would only continue with premium hands that have me crushed and premium draws. Against that range, my set is in bad shape. So, I made a small raise to 1,500. I expected my opponents to call this raise size with a wide range of one pair hands that I have crushed. It is important to size your bet so that worse hands can realistically call. You must realize and accept that you simply cannot price out strong draws with any raise size, so there is no point making a big raise in hopes of getting the drawing hands to fold.
The turn was the (Qh-10h-9d)-2c. My opponents checked to me and I bet 3,200 into the 6,525 pot. As on the flop, this bet was tailored to keep my opponents in with a wide range of hands that are drawing either dead or thin. If I bet larger, I would likely induce my opponents to fold all of the weak hands I have crushed, meaning that if they continue, I am either beat or against a premium draw. To my surprise, both of my opponents called. Going to the river, the pot was 16,125. The lady had 13,000 in her stack and the Brazilian had 3,000. I had 17,000.
The river was the (Qh-10h-9d-2c)-Qs. Much to my surprise, the lady bet 7,000. The Brazilian folded. At this point, I recognized that I could be crushed by a better full house or four of a kind. However, I assumed the lady could easily have a hand like A-Q, K-Q, or Q-J and be overvaluing it. While most people would raise in this spot, electing to get the lady’s last 6,000 in the pot, I decided to call instead. Notice if I call and lose, I will have 10,000 left in my stack. If I call and win, I will have 40,000. If I raise and lose, I will have 4,000. If I raise and win, I will have 46,000. The difference between 46,000 and 40,000 is small but the difference between 10,000 and 4,000 is huge. In a tournament, it is important to conserve your stack, especially if the stack you will conserve is worth a significant amount of money. If this was a cash game, I would have certainly gone all-in because I do expect to have the best hand when I go all-in and get called more than 50% of the time. All of this led me to call.
To my surprise, the lady showed Kc-10s. Remember that my flop and turn bet sizes were tailored to keep my opponents in with exactly these marginal hands. Keeping my opponents in the pot paid off huge this time. Remember, you will rarely be able to raise large and force your opponent to fold huge draws. Your main concern should be to maximize value when you have your opponents drawing nearly dead.
Poker Check Nuts River Float Trips
I hope you enjoyed this hand.Be sure to check back next week at JonathanLittlePoker.com for another educational blog post.