Check it down??

SandyVN

I was playing a $25 tournament tonight. I was at the final table 7 players left. me 24K, (a) 22K (b) 2.5K.
Blinds 500/1000
Im on the button no callers KJs, I raised 4000 (a) calls (b) goes all in. Flop 10K5. I bet 5K (a) folds & starts going mad.

"It must be your first time here your suppose to check it down!! The aim is to try knock players out (which i did by the way)..etc..etc"
This went on for about 5mins.! Typing more then he was playing!


Now my thoughts of it was they both were holding A-X, if i check it and an ace comes I lose. However if i push (A) out now i receive the side pot 3k & all i can lose is 1K.
After all im there to win not grind it out.

Was i wrong? should i have checked it??

P.S. I came 4th cant seem to win one yet!!
:mad:

NickyOD

I almost never check it down when I have a good piece of the flop unless getting the player out means a big step up in the payouts or its a satellite. Apart from the over raise on he button there's nothing wrong with the way you played the hand. I despise teamplaying to get players out and I once had a players hand killed for attempting to collude with me to check down a dry side pot when a player was all in. (I think Fatboyfdim was at the table at the time)

What you are doing is giving yourself the best chance to win the chips up for graps. You had top pair so betting is perfectly fine. Even betting with Ace high wouldn't be terrible if the pot had enough value in it. I'd even bet here with a flush draw.

Fatboydim

The general consensus is to check a pot down unless you are fairly certain you have a winning hand. But at no point should anyone at the table say check it down or collude to do so. [Which was the case Nicky refers to] I think your play was fine. Not least because you made a bet over the amount the all in player had...

However where I disagree with Nicky is... I think if you don't hit or you only have second or bottom pair then check it down. For example in the 10k last night a dangerous player was all in for 1.5k - three of us called him - including the BB. When the flop came the BB bet top pair which was a nine. I and the other player folded. BB had K9 - Next card came an ace. Both I and the other player held an ace. The all in player had pocket tens... Therefore instead of being elliminated he now had 6k in chips.... and went on to make the money later at the expense of the player who bet the nines. The player who bet the nines was not shortstacked at the time. If he was - then fair play to him.

At the end of the day poker isn't a team game... Every situation is different, and every player has to do what's right for them...

TrueDub

I don't like checking it down - it smacks of collusion. However, I agree with FatBoyDim above - if you're going to check anyway, go ahead.

willis

TrueDub wrote:

I don't like checking it down - it smacks of collusion.

I would report it if this was checked down

Ste05

I don't like checking it down here with top pair at all, the side pot is almost as big as the main pot, and so if you take down this $3k if you are outdrawn it only helps one player and not possibly 2.

Also, IMHO, you made it fairly clear to the table that you wanted it heads up and the other guy shouldn't have called without a decent hand. And IMHO at that stage the All-In player is pretty much irrelevant (he's presumably just calling for value, even if he was guaranteed to call anyway) and now you are playing for the other guys stack as well.

Although I do agree generally that without a fairly strong hand after the flop you're better off just checking it down. And I think that that's the unwritten rule. i.e. you don't bet without a strong made hand.