Two hands from the WSOP Main Event

The latest PR from Unibet NL:

Here are a couple of hands from my Main Event which got me thinking. They are interesting in that they both contain raises from me with marginal hands (those who know me might describe me as a nit), are both against decent European pros, have pretty similar boards, and not too dissimilar action.

Let me know in the comments box below how you would have played them, and I’ll post again later in the week with yours and my analysis.

Hand #1

It’s level 5 – the last level of Day 1 and the blinds are 200/400 with a 50 ante. It’s a pretty soft table and I’m doing OK with about 50k in chips. The guy to my right is Ruben Visser, a solid Dutch Poker Stars pro. We’ve had a few ding dongs on the blinds, and mostly we’ve been respecting each other.

It’s folded around to Visser on the button and he opens for 950 out of a stack of around 20k. I haven’t done any 3-betting since I sat down about 3 hours ago and I decide to make it 2700 from the small blind with K-9o. The big blind gets out of the way and Ruben calls.

The flop is T-9-3 rainbow. I c-bet 2800 and he calls. The turn is a Queen. We both check. The river is an Eight (so the board is T-9-3-Q-8 with no flushes). I check. Ruben bets 4,500 into a pot of just under 12k.

What do you do?

Hand #2

It’s level 7: the 300/600 with 75 ante level. I open from the cut off with 9-8o to 1500. Both the button and the small blind are tight, so it’s only the big blind I have any concerns about. He’s a Finnish guy who I’ve seen once at a Unibet Open; he’s aggressive but knows how to fold and seems like a decent player. I have about 90k and he has about 35k. It may be marginal to be raising his blind with 9-8o, but I do it anyway.

The other two fold and my Finnish foe calls. The flop is T-9-2 rainbow. There’s around 4k in the pot and the Finn bets out that much. Before we go anywhere, tell me: what do you do in this spot?

I call, and we see the turn. The turn is the Six of Hearts. Interesting because it brings in an unlikely straight, but also a back door heart draw. We both check.

The river is an offsuit Four. The Finn bets out 10,200 (the pot is around 12k). What do you do?