A♦K♦ on the Turn, what do you do here?

AK on the Turn.gif

Decision Point: In a Tournament, a Middle Position player calls, and the Button raises. You reraise from the Big Blind with A♦K♦. The Middle Position folds, and the Button calls. The Flop comes 8♣7♦2♠. You bet the Flop and the Button calls. The Turn is the 3♦. Action is on you, what do you do here?

Pro Answer: Our opponent called us after we reraised preflop and made a continuation bet on the flop. Given this action, their range of hands likely includes overpairs to the flop, occasionally sets and one pair hands such as top pair, and rarely two pair or a straight draw.

The fact that we hold both an Ace and a King makes both pocket Aces and pocket Kings less likely holdings than pocket Queens or Jacks, as there are now fewer combinations of those hands that they could hold.

This effect makes a turn semi-bluff all-in even more attractive, since the majority of the time our opponent will now be hesitant to call an all-in. Opponents will fold hands like 99-JJ to this action much more often than QQ-AA.

This is an ideal time to fire a turn second barrel semi-bluff all-in, since we can cause a decent portion of our opponent’s overall range to fold, in addition to still having significant equity in the pot when we are called.

Putting our opponent all-in on this turn is the best play.

What would you do here?
Share your answer in the comments below!


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