DECISION POINT: In a daily live Tournament there are 12 players left and 9 get paid. You complete from the Small Blind with K♠9♠ after the Button limps, and the Big Blind checks. The flop comes J♦8♠7♠ and you are first to act. What do you do here?

PRO ANSWER: This is an excellent opportunity to for us to check with the intention of check-raising all-in against most bets. The effective stack is just about perfect for a check-raise all-in. Compared to open-shoving, this allows us to win an additional bet while still creating plenty of fold equity.

Also, getting checked around isn’t a bad outcome for us. We really don’t mind free cards and not getting all-in here given the ICM considerations (if we do check and it checks through, we should continue to check on most turn cards).

Overall, when we check on this flop an opponent betting or checking are both great results for us.

Open-jamming is certainly profitable given the strength of our hand and opponent ranges, but overall check-raising all-in will be the most profitable line.

Check-raising all-in is the best play.