Post by jdaddy on Dec 13, 2007 13:37:47 GMT -4
#11…POKER A-LEVEL EXAM 2007
Qualification: Academy-Level Examining Authority: WPTMB Paper Category: Multiple Choice Time Allocation: 30 Minutes
#11…POKER A-LEVEL EXAM 2007
QUESTION 1
This month, you will be playing in an actual WPT tournament – the $10,000 buy-in Borgata Poker Classic in Atlantic City. Nearly 600 players have entered the event, and there’s almost $6,000,000 in prize money up for grabs.
It is early on the first day, and the blinds have only just been increased from their initial level of $25 / $50 to $50 / $100. Your starting stack was $10,000 and this is a nine-man table, mostly made up of online qualifiers, of which you are one.
But being a very keen follower of WPT on television, you have recognized the chirpy, pleasant and extremely chatty player three seats to your left as top tournament professional Daniel Negreanu.
Nothing much has happened so far, and your starting stack has risen slightly to $10,500.
Negreanu, on the other hand, has been very active in the time that you have been there – betting and raising constantly. His stack quickly escalated to $17,000 but then he was on the receiving end of a couple of bad beats and is now down to slightly below where he started, about $9,600.
On this hand, Negreanu is under the gun and you are on the button. You get dealt 3♦ 3♠ and there is multi-way action with four callers (including Negreanu) before it reaches you, what is your play?
■ a Fold
■ b Call
■ c Raise
It is only $100 to you to call, and the pot is unraised, so you can take a shot at flopping a set. In fact, you wouldn’t even mind a raised pot in this scenario, because a raise helps to define your opponents’ range of hands better. So a call is favorite.
Raising the pot yourself is not as dumb as it sounds, though, because you have position, and your raise can represent an awful lot of hands on the flop. Because no one has implied any sort of strength so far, then a decent-sized raise could move many people off the hand, and you basically only have the blinds to worry about.
If you folded pocket Threes in this situation, then you need to go and see a doctor. You have no chance of winning a big poker tourney playing it as safe as that.
QUESTION 2
You decide to call the $100 and the Small Blind completes, with the Big Blind rapping the table to check. So we have a very unusual seven-way action pot with $700 in the middle. The flop comes 8♠ 6♥ 3♣ and your hoped-for, one-in-eight chance of flopping a set has just materialized. Both of the blinds check, then Daniel Negreanu fires $500 into the $700 pot and the other three players to his left quickly fold. What is your play?
■ a Fold
■ b Call
■ c Raise
Come on now, please tell me that you did not fold just because the bettor was Negreanu. That is taking respect to the extreme. The choice is between calling and raising, but you have to worry about the two blinds to your left. Fine, so they checked the flop, but there are several draws out there and this is an unraised pot, with you likely having the best hand.
The sensible move in this scenario is not to get cute by slow-playing your hand. If it was a raised pot then you could eliminate hands like 5-4 and 9-7 from being in contention – depending on the type of player, of course. But in big multi-way pots, anything is possible, so you need to get rid of the straight draws. So the play here is to raise, and you do so with a pot-sized raise to $2,200.
QUESTION 3
As expected the blinds fold, but Negreanu contemplates for a while and then calls your raise. There is $5,100 in the pot, Negreanu has $7,300 left and you have precisely $8,200 – so you have him covered. The turn card is the K♦ (making a board of 8♠ 6♥ 3♣ K♦) and Negreanu checks. What is you play?
■ a Check
■ b Bet
Stop! Take a deep breath because your entire tournament life is on the line based on what you are about to do on this hand. This pot has escalated into a big one based on the size of the blinds, and you could either be doubling up or almost down to the felt and out of the door. To decide on the correct course of action, you must try to figure out what Negreanu’s possible hands could be.
Continuing with a follow-on bet on the turn would be correct in many situations, but the warning bells should be starting to ring here. You have to ask yourself: would Daniel Negreanu bet into a big multi-way pot on the flop with nothing but a draw? The answer is ‘possibly’ (because anything is possible with players like that), but it’s not very likely.
He limps in with many hands, hoping to bust weak players who don’t have the skill and/or discipline to lay down a big second-best hand. He would probably have checked a straight draw into this many players – but then again, he is smart enough to realize that many players will fold to him merely on his reputation alone.
He is also smart enough to realize that, because this was an unraised pot, literally anything could be out there – but he was still prepared to call a pot-sized raise on the flop from you. His turn check could be a ploy to lure you in for your entire stack, so this cannot be discounted.
If he was not betting a draw, then he was betting a made hand – but what kind of a made hand? It is doubtful that he would have limped in with an 8-6 or a 6-3 from under the gun. Yes, he has been known to play these hands quite often, but from UTG at a full table very early in a tournament is a different story, and there is no way that he would call a pot-sized raise with top pair, however high his kicker is – or even an over pair like 9-9 or 10-10 for that matter.
But the possibility of Negreanu holding a higher set than yours seems very real. Look at the situation this way: if you are wrong and are still in the lead, then it has cost you some value or, at worst, the entire pot if he draws out. But if you are right and he does have a higher set, then you are in serious danger of being almost out of the tournament after this hand is over. This is precisely the situation that he has been looking for.
So a check is your best move – and if you got there by reasoning near enough the same as me, then award yourself 10 bonus points.
QUESTION 4
You check it back, and the river card is the A♠, making a final board of 8♠ 6♥ 3♣ K♦ A♠. Negreanu stalls for a few seconds and declares: “I’m all-in”. He reaches forward and puts his entire stack of $7,300 into the pot. If you call and lose this hand, you will be down to $900 and almost out. But if you call and are ahead, then you will have not only knocked out one of the tournament favorites and one of the greatest players in the history of the game, you will also be in a very useful chip position early on. Do you:
■ a Fold
■ b Call
A stack of $8,200 is still more than enough to do some damage with, but what can you do with $900 – except say a prayer? Negreanu knows that you have a hand, yet he is still prepared to play a very big pot despite this. You must fold.
Notice to examination candidates: If you decide to go against my advice and call, then sure enough, Negreanu will show you 8♥ 8♦ for a higher set. You will be down to $900 and will bust out four hands later when your A-K gets out drawn by an A-Q after a Queen flops. The one positive note is: you’ll learn your lesson for next time!
HERE ARE THE SCORES. HOW WELL DID YOU DO?
Q1: a 0; b 10; c 5
Q2: a 0; b 7; c 10
Q3: a 10; b 5 (with a possible 10-point bonus)
Q4: a 10; b 5
SCORE RATING
50 Excellent. Laying down a set in this situation is the sign of a player!
40+ Unfortunately, the marking is severe this month, so you just did OK.
30-39 Admit it, he trapped you didn’t he?
20-29 You are what is known as the ‘dead money’.
0-20 You are worse than dead money – you’re clueless!
Qualification: Academy-Level Examining Authority: WPTMB Paper Category: Multiple Choice Time Allocation: 30 Minutes
#11…POKER A-LEVEL EXAM 2007
QUESTION 1
This month, you will be playing in an actual WPT tournament – the $10,000 buy-in Borgata Poker Classic in Atlantic City. Nearly 600 players have entered the event, and there’s almost $6,000,000 in prize money up for grabs.
It is early on the first day, and the blinds have only just been increased from their initial level of $25 / $50 to $50 / $100. Your starting stack was $10,000 and this is a nine-man table, mostly made up of online qualifiers, of which you are one.
But being a very keen follower of WPT on television, you have recognized the chirpy, pleasant and extremely chatty player three seats to your left as top tournament professional Daniel Negreanu.
Nothing much has happened so far, and your starting stack has risen slightly to $10,500.
Negreanu, on the other hand, has been very active in the time that you have been there – betting and raising constantly. His stack quickly escalated to $17,000 but then he was on the receiving end of a couple of bad beats and is now down to slightly below where he started, about $9,600.
On this hand, Negreanu is under the gun and you are on the button. You get dealt 3♦ 3♠ and there is multi-way action with four callers (including Negreanu) before it reaches you, what is your play?
■ a Fold
■ b Call
■ c Raise
It is only $100 to you to call, and the pot is unraised, so you can take a shot at flopping a set. In fact, you wouldn’t even mind a raised pot in this scenario, because a raise helps to define your opponents’ range of hands better. So a call is favorite.
Raising the pot yourself is not as dumb as it sounds, though, because you have position, and your raise can represent an awful lot of hands on the flop. Because no one has implied any sort of strength so far, then a decent-sized raise could move many people off the hand, and you basically only have the blinds to worry about.
If you folded pocket Threes in this situation, then you need to go and see a doctor. You have no chance of winning a big poker tourney playing it as safe as that.
QUESTION 2
You decide to call the $100 and the Small Blind completes, with the Big Blind rapping the table to check. So we have a very unusual seven-way action pot with $700 in the middle. The flop comes 8♠ 6♥ 3♣ and your hoped-for, one-in-eight chance of flopping a set has just materialized. Both of the blinds check, then Daniel Negreanu fires $500 into the $700 pot and the other three players to his left quickly fold. What is your play?
■ a Fold
■ b Call
■ c Raise
Come on now, please tell me that you did not fold just because the bettor was Negreanu. That is taking respect to the extreme. The choice is between calling and raising, but you have to worry about the two blinds to your left. Fine, so they checked the flop, but there are several draws out there and this is an unraised pot, with you likely having the best hand.
The sensible move in this scenario is not to get cute by slow-playing your hand. If it was a raised pot then you could eliminate hands like 5-4 and 9-7 from being in contention – depending on the type of player, of course. But in big multi-way pots, anything is possible, so you need to get rid of the straight draws. So the play here is to raise, and you do so with a pot-sized raise to $2,200.
QUESTION 3
As expected the blinds fold, but Negreanu contemplates for a while and then calls your raise. There is $5,100 in the pot, Negreanu has $7,300 left and you have precisely $8,200 – so you have him covered. The turn card is the K♦ (making a board of 8♠ 6♥ 3♣ K♦) and Negreanu checks. What is you play?
■ a Check
■ b Bet
Stop! Take a deep breath because your entire tournament life is on the line based on what you are about to do on this hand. This pot has escalated into a big one based on the size of the blinds, and you could either be doubling up or almost down to the felt and out of the door. To decide on the correct course of action, you must try to figure out what Negreanu’s possible hands could be.
Continuing with a follow-on bet on the turn would be correct in many situations, but the warning bells should be starting to ring here. You have to ask yourself: would Daniel Negreanu bet into a big multi-way pot on the flop with nothing but a draw? The answer is ‘possibly’ (because anything is possible with players like that), but it’s not very likely.
He limps in with many hands, hoping to bust weak players who don’t have the skill and/or discipline to lay down a big second-best hand. He would probably have checked a straight draw into this many players – but then again, he is smart enough to realize that many players will fold to him merely on his reputation alone.
He is also smart enough to realize that, because this was an unraised pot, literally anything could be out there – but he was still prepared to call a pot-sized raise on the flop from you. His turn check could be a ploy to lure you in for your entire stack, so this cannot be discounted.
If he was not betting a draw, then he was betting a made hand – but what kind of a made hand? It is doubtful that he would have limped in with an 8-6 or a 6-3 from under the gun. Yes, he has been known to play these hands quite often, but from UTG at a full table very early in a tournament is a different story, and there is no way that he would call a pot-sized raise with top pair, however high his kicker is – or even an over pair like 9-9 or 10-10 for that matter.
But the possibility of Negreanu holding a higher set than yours seems very real. Look at the situation this way: if you are wrong and are still in the lead, then it has cost you some value or, at worst, the entire pot if he draws out. But if you are right and he does have a higher set, then you are in serious danger of being almost out of the tournament after this hand is over. This is precisely the situation that he has been looking for.
So a check is your best move – and if you got there by reasoning near enough the same as me, then award yourself 10 bonus points.
QUESTION 4
You check it back, and the river card is the A♠, making a final board of 8♠ 6♥ 3♣ K♦ A♠. Negreanu stalls for a few seconds and declares: “I’m all-in”. He reaches forward and puts his entire stack of $7,300 into the pot. If you call and lose this hand, you will be down to $900 and almost out. But if you call and are ahead, then you will have not only knocked out one of the tournament favorites and one of the greatest players in the history of the game, you will also be in a very useful chip position early on. Do you:
■ a Fold
■ b Call
A stack of $8,200 is still more than enough to do some damage with, but what can you do with $900 – except say a prayer? Negreanu knows that you have a hand, yet he is still prepared to play a very big pot despite this. You must fold.
Notice to examination candidates: If you decide to go against my advice and call, then sure enough, Negreanu will show you 8♥ 8♦ for a higher set. You will be down to $900 and will bust out four hands later when your A-K gets out drawn by an A-Q after a Queen flops. The one positive note is: you’ll learn your lesson for next time!
HERE ARE THE SCORES. HOW WELL DID YOU DO?
Q1: a 0; b 10; c 5
Q2: a 0; b 7; c 10
Q3: a 10; b 5 (with a possible 10-point bonus)
Q4: a 10; b 5
SCORE RATING
50 Excellent. Laying down a set in this situation is the sign of a player!
40+ Unfortunately, the marking is severe this month, so you just did OK.
30-39 Admit it, he trapped you didn’t he?
20-29 You are what is known as the ‘dead money’.
0-20 You are worse than dead money – you’re clueless!