Here are the answers and explanations from the Instagram quiz (part 1).

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Question #1

Live $2/$5. You raised UTG with 9♠️ 9♣️ to $15 and the player on the button called. What would you do on this flop? (100 blinds deep, no reads.)

The correct answer is to check-call. You have a medium strength hand that works best as a bluff-catcher that is trying to see all five cards as cheaply as possible.

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Question #2

You're playing $2/$5 live. You raise to $15 on the button with K♣️ J♣️ and the small blind 3-bets to $55. You call and your opponent checks to you on the Q♣️ 4♦️ 2♣️ flop. What's your play? ($500 stacks, small blind seems solid but you've never played with him before).

Bonus Question: What's your plan for the rest of the hand?

 

The correct answer is to bet. You have a strong flush draw that wants to fold out some better hands such as A♥️ 6♥️ and also build the pot for when it hits the flush.

Bonus answer: The plan is to always bet again on the turn unless an Ace, King or Jack comes, and then give up on the river if the flush misses. You should give up on brick rivers because your hand blocks your opponent’s flush draws that will certainly fold to a river bet.

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Question #3

You’re UTG with A♦️ 3♦️ at a 9-handed, $2/$5 live table ($500 stacks, first hand at the table). What’s your play?

 

The correct answer is to fold. There are eight players behind, which means there are a lot more chances of getting 3-bet and/or having a dominated Ax hand.

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Question #4

You have K♠️ T♠️ on A♠️ K♥️ Q♠️ after defending your big blind vs an early position raiser. You check, they c-bet 2,000 into 5,500. What's your play with 20,000 chips behind?

 

The correct answer is to call. Your hand has very good equity and blockers to the nuts, but raising it is a very high variance play that may or may not be good, depending on your opponent and the exact situation in the tournament. If you were up against a good player that was able to fold a top pair, then check-raising becomes an excellent option. As a default though, just check-call and play the turn.

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Question #5

You’re playing $1/$2 in a casino and the hijack raises to $8. The player on the button calls and you’re in the small blind with K♦️ Q♥️ ($200 stacks). What’s your play?

Reads: Hijack seems like a reg but is otherwise unknown, button is a loose-passive recreational player, and the big blind is a very tight recreational player,

 

The correct answer is to 3-bet based on the reads included. Since the button is likely calling with a wide range, 3-betting becomes very profitable. Think of it like this: if the hijack raiser folds, you are essentially 3-betting for value versus the button.

Under normal/unknown conditions, this hand is a fold. It is simply not strong enough to either flat the raise out of position or 3-bet. (Granted, the reads included are fairly common conditions at a $1/$2 live table.) Against a smaller raise size, both calling and raising are good options even without the reads above..

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Question #6

You're dealt Q♣️ Q♥️ while playing $5/$10 with $1,000 stacks. The button raises to $25 and you 3-bet to $90 in the small blind, which the button calls. The flop is J♠️ J♣️ 6♦️. What's your play?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by UpswingPoker♠️ (@upswingpoker) on Jul 11, 2019 at 2:34pm PDT

 

The correct answer is to bet around 1/3rd of the pot. Given that the stack-to-pot ratio is low, betting 1/3rd pot with your hand is likely the best bet size to extract value on a very dry board by forcing your opponent to defend with very weak hands such as backdoor flush draws.

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Question #7

You raise from the cutoff with T♠️ 9♠️ in your regular game. The big blind defends and the flop comes A♠️ J♠️ 4♦️. What's your play after the big blind checks?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by UpswingPoker♠️ (@upswingpoker) on Jun 19, 2019 at 7:57am PDT

 

The correct answer is to bet small. A small bet size is enough to force a lot of hands such as K♥️ 8♥️ and 66 to check-fold, while giving you the opportunity to further control the size of the pot on the turn (which you wouldn’t have if you check back the flop).

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Question #8

You're in the middle stage of a tournament with a 52k stack. Blinds at 500/1k with a 100 ante.

A player in early position (24,000 stack) raises to 2k. You look down at 5♥️ 5♦️ after the action folds around to you in the small blind. The big blind player has a 70,000 stack. What's your play?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by UpswingPoker♠️ (@upswingpoker) on May 29, 2019 at 7:16am PDT

 

The correct answer is to call. Since you're getting 4.5 to 1, you have more than enough equity to call. Shoving (or 3-betting small with the intention of calling a shove) would be far too loose since you're facing a tight early position range. Plus, the big blind could wake up with a strong hand and bust you.

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Question #9

You're playing $2/$5 live with $500 stacks. Middle position (decent regular) raises to $20 and you're on the button with J♠️ T♠️.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by UpswingPoker♠️ (@upswingpoker) on Dec 24, 2018 at 1:34pm PST

 

The correct answer is to 3-bet. The best sizing is somewhere between $60 and $80. This hand is a good candidate for a 3-bet bluff because it blocks strong hands such as AJs, ATs, KJs, KTs, JJ and TT.

If one (or both) of the players in the blinds is a very weak player who will make many mistakes preflop and postflop, calling becomes a more reasonable option in order to draw them into the pot.

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