Facing the Surprising Check-Raise Shove on the Turn: Fold or Call?
Sometimes you're cruising along after the flop, having made a good hand and quietly betting for value, then suddenly your opponent wakes up with a huge check-raise that puts you to a difficult decision. Such was the case for me in this week's hand from a recent European Poker Tour event.
The blinds were 600/1,200 with a 200 ante. I had about 55,000 to start the hand, and when the action folded to me on the button I raised to 2,500 with K♣Q♠. The small blind folded and a young European in the big blind with about 34,000 behind called.
The flop came Q♦6♣3♠ to give me top pair, my opponent checked, and I continued for 3,000 — less than 40% of the pot. My opponent called, and the turn brought the 2♦.
Once again he checked, and I bet 6,000. Much to surprise my opponent check-raised all in for nearly 30,000.
Take a look and hear my thoughts about his all-in range in this scenario, and see what I decide to do:
Would you call with your bluff catcher in this situation, or would you fold against a random, young European here? Usually players have premium hands when they want to get their stacks in, but sometimes you will be shown a semi-bluff.
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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