DECISION POINT: You are In the middle stages of a daily tournament you play often with blinds at 500/1,000 and a 1,000 big blind ante. You are new to the table but know the population tendency for this tournament to be loose and passive. Action folds to you on the Button with A♠7♥, you raise to 2,000 and the Small Blind calls. Your opponent checks the J♠K♣7♣ flop and action is on you.

What do you do here?

PRO ANSWER: We are in the middle stage of a daily tournament and have just moved tables so little is known about the specific players at our table. However, we play in this tournament regularly and the general population tends to play fairly loose and passive. The blinds are 500/1,000 with a 1,000 big blind ante. We are dealt As7h on the Button and action folds to us.

Given stack sizes we can potentially move all-in in this spot and show a profit. Against very tough players who aggressively defend their blinds, shoving may even be the preferred line. Since the field in this tournament is generally made up of more loose and passive players, we elect to raise a standard amount to 2,000. The Small Blind calls and the Big Blind folds.

The flop is JsKc7c and the Small Blind checks. The immediate temptation is to continuation bet in this spot, however let’s first explore the Small Blind’s range a bit more. Most skilled players wouldn’t have much of a calling range in this spot, preferring to fold or move all-in out of the Small Blind at this stack depth. Since we’re dealing with a loose and passive player here, we’ll assume that their calling range includes hands that weren’t quite strong enough to move all-in with but have enough equity to continue.

That range is likely to include a lot of broadway hands as well as potentially some middle pairs and connects with this board very well. Even when the Small Blind misses this flop they often have straight and/or flush draws that have significant equity and are not likely to fold to a bet.

In some instances this calling range will include Ax hands that missed and smaller pairs such as 66, however those hands have very little equity facing our range and against a passive opponent we are likely to get to showdown cheaply versus those holdings.

Examining the Small Blind's range for this spot in detail, we can see they will often connect with this flop in a meaningful way. When the Small Blind misses the flop, they have very few outs to catch up and are unlikely to bluff future streets given previously demonstrated passive play.

Given the stack sizes, specific opponent tendencies, board texture, and the likely ranges in this spot, the best play is to check.

Checking is the best play.