My entry to the Malta competition turn play is below :)
Edit: Can you believe this?
I'm even on the button! haha
Little does he know how expert I am on this line thanks to RankingHero
Here is the hand:
Imagine you’re in Malta playing the 2015 PokerListings Battle of Malta. Lucky you!
You are close to the bubble.
The blinds are 1,000/2,000/200.
Preflop
Everyone folds to the player in middle position. He’s an aggressive Swedish pro, with 136,250 chips, and he raises to 5,000. Two hands earlier, the villain lost 20% of his stack on a bluff on the river.
You’re on the button with K♥K♦ and a stack of 130,500.
You decide to 3-bet 12,000 chips.
The small blind and the big blind both fold.
Villain calls.
The pot is now 28,800 chips.
Flop
The dealer reveals Q♠K♠7♠.
Villain bets 12,000.
The action is back on you. You now have a 118,500 stack.
You raise his bet to 28,000 chips.
Villain decides to call.
Turn
The turn card is 3♠
Villain checks.
The pot is 84,800. You have a 90,500 stack.
What do you do?
OK this isn't actually as bad as it might look at first glance this guy is a pro, he's very unlikely to be calling with weak flush draws given how polarised our range is after we 3bet preflop and raised his donk lead on the flop. What more we are shallow which means he's just not getting the implied odds if he hits and he will know this.
The ace high flush is really the only card he's going to be betting for value on the river knowing how strong our range. The rest of the hands he bets on the river (the majority of his range that does bet) is going to be a bluff.
What's more he doesn't know that we are capable of thinking this hand through in the way we have, Given this and his earlier bluff the best play here is to check behind. Sure we run a small risk of the board running out to a 5 card flush but that's slim given the spades already out there and the other suits in the deck.
So with that in mind, and a smart little bit of
Let's check behind here.
We give him the opportunity to bluff using the evidence we've already gleamed from two hands previous on the river. While at the same time not isolating ourselves against hands that beat us. Sure we had a set on the flop, but our hand strength relative to the board has just plummeted. But we are still strong Vs the whole range of hands he could be holding and have a nice little
For the river. If he does go for a half pot or less bluff on the river (and really no reason for him to bet more if he is bluffing) and we call, we are still going to have 20bbs left more than enough for us to try to manouvre ourselves through the bubble and into the later stages of the tournament.
Bring it on Swedish Pro. I check. Lets see a river!
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