I witnessed this hand in weekly $1K on Stars. BTN underbets the river, SB tanks for a while and then check-raises about 75% of his stack, BTN snap-shoves, and SB folds. Now in all likelihood SB was bluffing, but I feel like he could fold some pretty strong hands like trips and maybe even small full houses given that BTN didn’t even need to think about whether he wanted to get it in to a check-raise. If he were bluffing or shoving for any kind of thin value, he’d have to think about what SB is repping. Likewise there’s no way he could have done that thinking while SB was in the tank, because there’s no reason he would have seen a less-than-all-in check-raise coming well enough to decide how we was going to respond.
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 1050 Tournament, 10/20 Blinds (9 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
Hero (MP3) (t4970)
CO (t4840)
Button (t5205)
SB (t4930)
BB (t4550)
UTG (t4950)
UTG+1 (t5555)
MP1 (t5000)
MP2 (t5000)
Hero’s M: 165.67
Preflop: Hero is MP3 with 5
, A
6 folds, Button bets t60, SB raises to t211, 1 fold, Button calls t151
Flop: (t442) 9, 9
, 3
(2 players)
SB bets t240, Button calls t240
Turn: (t922) 7 (2 players)
SB bets t580, Button calls t580
River: (t2082) 4 (2 players)
SB checks, Button bets t685, SB raises to t2640, Button raises to t4174 (All-In), 1 fold
Total pot: t7362
Results:
Button didn’t show
Outcome: Button won t7362
So the lesson is to always take a few seconds to act in big pots, not just to increase your chances of getting it right but also to balance the times that you legitimately need time to think.
Maybe I’m doing this wrong but what the button did is what I do and that’s make up his mind on what he wants to do the rest of the hand. Sometimes I’ll insta-shove when I get to the river. I try to figure out whether I have the best hand, whether I want to bet for value, bet to bluff and what I’ll do if I get check raised.
I really hate betting now if I don’t have a plan on what my opponent is going to do. I try to start planning pre-flop if I’m first in and also if I’m calling or 3betting pre what I’m going to do on specific flops vs specific villains.
I do try and take the same amount of time though in making my decisions though. Normally I wait until the timer button pops up and then I make my decisions.
As a rule I agree that you should plan ahead, but in this specific case I have difficulty imagining that he had a plan for what he would do if his opponent check-raised less than all-in on the river. There was less than a pot-sized bet left in the stacks, and you so rarely see river check-raises in tournament play, that I just can’t see him anticipating it. I can see deciding to 5-bet, whether for value or as a bluff, before you 3-bet and then acting quickly if you get 4-bet, because that’s something you’ve got to be prepared for. But in this spot, I doubt Villain is prepared to act so quickly with anything other than a nutted hand.