Jonathan Little's Weekly Poker Hand: Ike Haxton Gets Value on River
Poker pro and coach Jonathan Little has been producing a wide variety of strategy content for poker players for some time, including authoring multiple books and sharing videos and articles on his website and elsewhere, much of which is free to players of all levels seeking to improve their games.
Little started his popular "Weekly Poker Hand" series on YouTube more than five years ago, using the format to focus on particular concepts and common mistakes as illustrated in his hand analyses. In the episode shown below, Little analyzes an interesting hand from the big €2,000/€4,000 no-limit hold'em Triton Cash Game.
The hand Little chooses to examine involves Isaac Haxton and Mikita Badziakouski and begins with Haxton raising from the cutoff to €10,000 with A♠7♣.
Badziakouski is next to act on the button with A♦Q♣, and Little discusses how in many situations either calling or raising are both fine options here. Of course in this game there are two more world-class players — Linus Loeliger and Dan Cates — waiting in the blinds, making things even more complicated.
Badziakouski does call, as does Loeliger from the small blind with K♣8♣, and with €38,000 in the middle the three players see a flop come 4♣7♥4♦.
Loeliger checks, and after having paired his seven Haxton continuation bets €12,000. After considering the players' ranges, Little says he, too, would likely bet relatively small here (a bit under half-pot).
Badziakouski chooses to call (as Little says he would also do), Loeliger folds, and the turn brings the 3♠. Both players check, then the 10♦ river completes the board.
Haxton still likely has the best hand, and as Little points out the question becomes whether or not to try to go for value, and if he does decide to value bet what would be the best bet size in order to get paid by worse. Checking to try to induce a bluff is another option as well.
Take a look below to see how Haxton does go for thin value here, and listen to Little's analysis of both players' situations on the river. Topics and concepts Little covers along the way include...
- position
- ranges and range reading
- continuation betting
- value betting
- bet sizing
Jonathan Little is a professional poker player and author with over $7,000,000 in live tournament earnings. He writes a weekly educational blog and hosts a podcast at JonathanLittlePoker.com. Sign up to learn poker from Jonathan for free at PokerCoaching.com. You can follow him on Twitter @JonathanLittle.
