Troublesome board in a poker tournament hand.

Community cards can often turn your seemingly strong hand into an ugly underdog if you aren’t paying attention. This is often the case when playing painted connectors such as here in the Midnight Madness poker tournament where I have KQ of diamonds in the big blind.

Getting raised from the cut-off.

I normally do not like to play KQ out of position because it is very difficult to commit to top pair only to find out you are dominated by the raiser. I have an M of about 17 here but my Q (average stack) is falling quickly and I am near the point where I need to make something happen before my stack is a non-factor to my opponents.

Good odds with a decent hand, but is this a problem?

The hand is folded around to the cut off (1) who raises to 150 and the small blind (2) snap calls. Always concerning that it. There is now 350 in the pot and I need to call 100 chips with 3.5:1 odds. Actually, if I was orange M here I would be leaning to shoving all-in with the hope of getting the cut-off to drop his hand and taking down a good size pot.

Since I am yellow M, I feel at this point that is too much to risk and I still have enough chips to see another round if I need to fold. I could in fact have the very best hand to start here but after 18 hands of profiling, I notice my opponent (1) has not pre-flopped raised a single time. So being ahead is wishful thinking, but again KQs is too good to just toss here so I decide to make the call.

The flop is TdKc3s. I hit top pair and since the pot is 450, my stack-to-pot ratio is nearly 2:1 and there should be a strong consideration for shoving here now, especially since the small blind has checked to me.

Or should I. Sometimes, things just don’t feel right in poker. The cut-off has never pre-flop raised and the small blind insta-called and then checked tom me. I feel that at least one of them ALSO hit this flop, so a shove here from me is likely to get called. In this particular spot, I am more inclined to see what happens next. One of the reasons I prefer not shoving here is that I am always much more comfortable leading the betting when I am short. If I have to shove, I want to do it first-in, and then let others make a tough decision.

Check, check, check.

I check and the cut-off checks too. The turn is the Qh. Wow now I have two pair and likely the best hand. Even though the Q is another straight card, this is usually worth the risk of being “cool”-erred.

My plan is to shove.... but the small blind bets out 150. This bet is VERY concerning to me but still I think it’s a shove for my top two pair. During the hand though, something just threw however and instead - I made a flat call. From memory, I was probably planning to let someone bluff at the pot on the river, which I also feel is a reasonable plan.

All Hell breaks loose.

The hand then got even more interesting as the cut-off reraises to 1050 and then the small blind pushes all in. The pot is now 2,960 and I have 1,030 remaining in my stack to call. If I do call - this is definitely going to be a 3 way showdown.

My flat call on the turn actually ended up giving me a LOT more information and now I must reconsider here. So I go “in the tank” to think things through.

1-) I had a feeling that both players were being tricky when the flop checked through, but I just wasn’t sure.

2-) Now, all of a sudden both are committed to the pot, and the cut-off seems to be classic tight-aggressive.

3-) Those types of players will not normally shoot their entire stack with top pair. Until his reraise he had only invested 150 in the pot.

Tanking... and remember I am doing this LIVE. Take 10 seconds....

In my view, at least one of them has two pair or better. A set, and a broadway straight are very plausible. The hands I beat here now are KT and KJ, and tied with another KQ. All other possibilities I am simply crushed. On the surface, the board chemistry should be a good thing for me, but based upon what just happened here, I am now handcuffed by what I thought was a good card.

I decide to fold. I still have 1,030 chips and the blinds are 25/50 and I will try and use them to get back into this tournament in the next few rounds.

The final outcome of this hand is posted in my Facebook profile. Please join the discussion there. FaceBook.com/Turtleknife