Poker Guy: Moneymaker gets aggressive with flush draw
Poker Guy: Moneymaker gets aggressive with flush draw
THE DECISION whether to push with a flush draw or just call in hopes of hitting your hand is highly situational, as are most things in poker. Some of the important factors include your position, the strength of your draw and your opponents' betting patterns and stack sizes, as 2003 World Series of Poker champion Chris Moneymaker showed in this hand from the 2008 WSOP main event at the Rio hotel in Las Vegas.
With blinds at $100-$200, a player in middle position with a medium stack opened for $600. A player in late position with a small stack called. Moneymaker, the big stack at the table with about $60,000, found K-Q of hearts in the big blind. He called an extra $400 into a $1,400 pot, getting better than 3-1 on his money.
The flop came 8-4-10, two hearts, giving Moneymaker the second-nut flush draw and two overcards. He checked.
"I wanted the initial raiser to bet," said Moneymaker, a pro from the PokerStars online site. "That's why I checked. I was going to come over the top of him if he didn't bet much. If the initial raiser had bet big, I might've just called and seen what happened on the turn.
"I don't like to push on my flush draws when I have a dominating stack like that. I don't want to get pot-committed against other big stacks. I want to make sure I hit my hand before I get to that point. If an ace comes on the flop and there's a pre-flop raiser, I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt of having an ace and I'll see how the hand plays out."
The initial raiser checked. The player in late position bet $800. The bet size indicated either a weak stab at an orphan pot or an attempt to set up a reraise by a player hoping to get it all in with two pair, a set or the nut-flush draw.
"I read him as weak," Moneymaker said. "That kind of bet into that pot - at best he has a 10, and if he has a 10, he can't call my raise. He's the last guy in the pot, so he doesn't have to have anything there. He could be betting anything with position."
Moneymaker check-raised to $2,400.
"If he makes a call there, unless it's a really bad turn card, I'm going to put him all in because he only has about $8,000 left," Moneymaker said. "If he comes over the top of me, I'm probably calling. I hate to call there, but with two overs and a flush draw, it's hard for me to get away from that."
Moneymaker dragged the pot when the initial raiser and the bettor on the end folded.
"I could've led out, but I figured on a 10-high board, someone will lead out and I can come over the top to take it down," Moneymaker said. "Half the time I might lead out, the other half I might check-raise."
Table talk
Push: To play aggressively.
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