High Stakes Hand Analysis with Pro Player Melika Razavi P12

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

In a heads up game with RunBetter, I open from the button to 300 with . RunBetter calls.

The flop is .

I always like to bet 1/3, the sizing is great and works for all my bluffs and strong hands.”

RunBetter checks and I decided to bet 200 into the 600 pot. I always like to bet 1/3, the sizing is great and works for all my bluffs and strong hands. It is also good for pot control. This flop is good for me as it’s rainbow and a dry board.

RunBetter called and we take the turn which is a .

RunBetter checks again and here we can both be betting and checking. I decided to bet 700 into 1,000 because the board is full of low cards and the highest card is a . I can get three streets of value from a  on the flop, turn, and river bet.

However, the problem with betting is that I risk getting bluffed out of the hand by a good player. RunBetter decided to check-raise me to 2,200 and I called.

The river is a  and RunBetter shoves all-in with 7,300 into 5,400.

I decided to fold here because he must be representing ,  ,, , or . He could also have a random 4x hand. It’s expensive to bluff catch against an overbet and I need to be right more often for it to work.

Hand #2

JeSuisJP1963 opens from the button to 600 in a heads up game. I decided to 3bet with  from the small blind.  is a good hand heads up, and strong enough to 3bet with.

JeSuisJP1963 called and the flop is .

On the flop I decided to bet 1,600, which is 1/3 of the pot, for the following reasons:

1. I have a gutshot and  in my hand for a backdoor flush draw
2. When I 3bet I like to cbet on the flop most times for pot control
3. I can continue betting on any spades on the turn as I’m holding the  and it’s a great blocker.

JeSuisJP1963 called and the turn is a .

Now I have a flush draw and a gutshot which gives me enough equity to bet again. I bet 5,600 into 8,000 which is around ¾ of the pot. My bet sizes always depend on how much we are playing effective stack, but I like to size up a bit on the turn.

JeSuisJP1963 called and we go to the river which is a .

Here I missed my draws and I don’t think I can win by checking. I like to carry on betting as I was representing a strong hand pre-flop by 3betting, betting on the flop and the turn.

I’m representing a flush and even though the board has a pair I don’t mind betting again with my bluffs since he would have to fold an [X] and many two pairs. If he had the  in his hand he will now have to fold as it’s not a great hand to call down on the river.

I go all-in with 10,221 into 19,200. JeSuisJP1963 folds and my play and bluff landed me the pot.

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