Continuation Bet or Check Behind with Overpair on a Coordinated Board?
Today I want to share and discuss a dicey hand from somewhat deep in a $10,000 buy-in World Series of Poker no-limit hold'em event that I might have played somewhat poorly. See what you think.
The blinds were 600/1,200 with a 200 ante, and with a stack of about 40,000 I opened from middle position to 2,800 with 10♣10♦. Everyone folded except a tight-aggressive young player in the big blind who had about 60,000 to begin the hand, and the flop came 8♣7♣6♦.
My opponent checked, and I had to decide how to play my overpair on this coordinated board that was certainly good for my opponent's range and bad for my own.
This is a spot where I need to be very cautious, only betting my best made hands. As I discuss below, pocket tens is among those best made hands, but that doesn't necessarily mean I should be making that continuation bet.
In this case, I chose to bet 3,500. That's on the small side (about half the pot), and looking back I think I should be betting more if I'm betting at all. The big blind called, the turn brought the Q♥, and my opponent checked again.
There was almost 15,000 in the middle at this point and I had a little less than 34,000 behind. What should I do with my tens, which is now a marginal made hand?
See what I decided and how things played out, and listen to my explanation for why I did what I did.
Even though this hand worked out for me, in hindsight I think checking behind on the flop and turn would have been better. What do you think?
By the way, here's the link to that video I mention: "When and How Much to Continuation Bet."
Jonathan Little is a professional poker player and author with over $6,800,000 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.
