High Stakes Hand Analysis with Pro Player Melika Razavi P16

High stakes regular, magician, pageant queen, and CoinPoker ambassador Melika Razavi loves hitting the cash game tables. To give our community some insight into her pot-winning strategies, Melika will walk you through two great hands step-by-step.

Hand #1

Almagenio limps from the small blind with 25. I decided to just call with  off-suit as my hand was not too strong.

The flop was .

This is a dry board with some straight draws. Almagenio checks and I decided to check back with bottom pair as it’s not a hand I would bluff with and has some showdown value.

The turn was a , giving me a second pair.

I decided to bet 2/3 of the pot, denying my opponent pot odds for his draws. Also, he never folds weaker pairs to this bet. Almagenio then puts in a minimum raise, which could be a semi-bluff with a few draws.

I decided to call, allowing him to make some big bluffs on the river with missed draws.

The river was a  – a complete blank.

Almagenio then bets 350 into a pot of 300. This is an overbet that I can’t fold with my 2 pairs, so I call.  My opponent shows a straight with . Sometimes we just have to pay the better hand, but it’s always good to avoid losing too much in the process.

Hand #2

I started this hand by raising jeef666 pre-flop to 30. I use bigger sizing because  plays very well heads-up post-flop against most of our opponents’ range, plus I’m out of position.

The flop was , a wet board with flush draws and some straight draws.

I decided to check with the intention to call with 2 overs and a backdoor flush draw. jeef666 checks back and we go to the turn.

The turn gave us a , giving me top pair.

I decided to bet 2/3 of the pot. I used this sizing as it doesn’t give our opponent pot odds to call for his draws. jeef666 raises 40, which he could be doing with many draws so I couldn’t fold just yet.

I called and the river was an .

The river card completes some straights in my opponent’s range, and betting here would lead to more trouble than good. So I decided to check back instead. jeef666 puts in a very small bet of 30, which I had to call given the pot odds and the missed flush draws.

jeeef666 showed  and I took down the pot with a pair of Kings.

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