High Stakes Hand Analysis with Pro Player Melika Razavi P9

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

I raise from the button to 1,200 with  and oribatej calls 600 from the big blind.

The flop is  and I would cbet this flop 100% of the time with 1/4 sizing. It’s important to put pressure on boards where we have an advantage over our opponent’s possible value hand combinations.

Since our opponent didn’t re-raise preflop he isn’t likely to have , , or . I can, and therefore I should, bet 100% of my hands on flops with .

The turn is a . oribatej checks and I decide to bet 600 (1/4 size) which oribatej calls.

I need at least a gutshot straight draw to bet again and I like up the size to about 2/3.”

My plan on the turn is to continue to bluff if I have any equity. I need at least a gutshot straight draw to bet again and I like up the size to about 2/3.

The river is a  and oribatej checks. I bet 4,200 and my opponent folds

Along with the river is a four-card straight. I decided to bet half-pot size and represent a queen for straight. The river gave me a great opportunity to bluff with cards that may not have any showdown value, like a pair of aces or better.

Hand #2

ESPdriven limps 100 and I raise to 400 with  which he calls.

The flop is  with a spade flush draw.

ESPdriven decides to donk bet 100 into the 950 pot. I always assume that these small leads in lieu of checking are signs of some kind of weakness.

The bet is so small that it is pretty much the same as a check, except that he reveals weakness again and now I definitely don’t believe he has a queen.”

Therefore I feel that I definitely have the best hand here and raise to 600. He calls and the turn is another  after which he leads 100 again.

The bet is so small that it is pretty much the same as a check, except that he reveals weakness again and now I definitely don’t believe he has a queen.

I call and the river gives us a blank  and ESPdriven makes a pot bet of 2,350. I have a very easy call to make here, even though I am blocking some of his potential bluff hands with the .

Sometimes you can pick up reads easily on online tables, and the most common way players reveal weakness is with bet sizing mistakes.

The small bet indeed was a form of stop betting that I  would never recommend trying.”

ESPdriven showed J10o, a missed gutshot and the pot of 7,050 goes to me. The small bet indeed was a form of stop betting that I  would never recommend trying.

Check out more hand analyses by poker pro Melika Razavi:

• High Stakes Hand Analysis with Pro Player Melika Razavi P1
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