Has anyone been watching the WPPA tourney on GSN recently? There was a hand that came up that I thought was interesting and definitely would consider playing differently if I was one of the players.

Lee Markholt is in the SB for 2k and Carlos Mortenson is in the BB for 4k. Its down to the last 4. Markholt is the shortstack and has about 90k and Mortenson has about double that.

Markholt gets K7o in the sb and limps after it folds to him. Carlos checks his 65o.

flop is A24 rainbow. It goes check check.

Turn is a 3 putting a diamond draw on the board.

Markholt checks, Carlos bets 4k, Markholt raises to 11k and Carlos makes it 22k total with the nuts. Markholt folds.

My question with this would be that since Carlos has position, couldn't a good case be made for calling Markholts raise on the turn in order to induce him to bluff at it on the river? Markholt might give up the river and just check/fold because of the call on the turn but this seems like a decent place to induce a bluff since Carlos has position.

What are your thoughts on this?

Briachek I hope I don't jinx this thread like I did the last one. If you don't get any more posts, I will retire from answering yours for a while.

Calling the turn with the nuts, hoping to entice a bluff on the end is a good play. Couple of things I have noticed about short stacks in tourneys. Sometimes when a shorty hits top pair, he has already made the decision to go all the way with the hand, come hell or highwater. Mortensen may have thought Markholt had an Ace. Also, if the opponent is really good, sometimes just calling a sizeable bet scares them more than a raise. People rarely call on a bluff. If Carlos calls on the turn, Markholt has a minute to think of all the hands that may have him beat, and get away from his hand. I have also smooth called the nuts with a well disguised hand on the turn only to have a river card come that did not change my hand, but scared the opponent out of betting or calling.

Finally, you have to mix up your play of course. With the editing on TV we don't know all the context, and Carlos may have had good reason to think his raise would have been read as a bluff.

Just my 2cents worth, I'm feeling chatty today.

Actually another thought that comes to mind is what does Carlos put Markholt on at the turn given the check raise? a) Nothing b) Something strong enough to check the flop (a set) or something precarious c) Ax (A2, A3, A4 are all possible here).

If Markholt has nothing - then Carlos can call the raise and hope that he bets on the river with a bluff.

If Markholt has the strong hand - Carlos can call here, but risks getting outdrawn on the river - in which case, he's not charging Markholt for drawing. This has the same principle as the flush draw - or for that matter is Markholt has a five.

If Markholt has the precarious hand - same thing - Carlos can call, but risks getting outdrawn, however, the reraise could very well be called.

All in all, I think I prefer the reraise to the flat call and bet/raise on the river. Markholt is a short stack as well, so that very well make it more likely (or less likely - depending on his exact holdings from Carlos's perspective) for him to call or push.

/d

well briachek you got another response but you had to beg for it, am i on probation? or is it alright for me to respond to your future posts?

you can respond but I'm not resorting to "respond to this thread to have a chance to win $5" like others have done.

I do understand that carlos calling could make markholt shut down but I don't feel that his only move is to check/fold or all in. After the turn, the pot would be about 30 (if carlos just called) and markholt would have about 75k left. Why would he push that much in for that pot on a bluff? He could easily continue to fire by betting 20k on the river and still have room to fold to a raise.

at least i got one person to agree with me.