blonde poker forum

I'd like a bit of a check/advice please about
a theory I have for playing Aces in the local
pub league where there is a bounty pot in
play.

Every week we pay an extra £1 into a
bounty pot. To win the bounty pot we have
to win a hand when our hole cards are two
specific cards. These two cards are drawn
randomly at the start of the night (if the
bounty had been won the week before,
otherwise they remain the same and the pot
rolls over).

The rule is that you are not allowed to go all
in to win the hand. You can raise as big as
you like without going all in, or you can call
if someone has bet you all in.
My plan for if I get dealt Aces is to raise all
in (bar the smallest chip I have) to
represent the bounty hand. My thinking
here is that players will think I have the
bounty hand (currently Kd8h) and are likely
to call with weaker aces, lower pairs and Kx
hands where x is higher than 8.

A point I am trying to work out though is
what to do if everyone folds? Would it be
better to show the Aces, and thus give me a
chance to do the same raise if I get the
bounty hand in the future, and make it
more likely that everyone will fold; or should
I muck the hand, meaning the others know
I didn't have the bounty hand but don't
know what I did have, possibly increasing
the likelihood of a call if I do the same raise
with Aces in the future?

The bounty pot can get big - it is over £100
now - so is worth winning!

Would need to know the buyin of the tournament and a payout structure to do any maths on it, interesting scenario though!

Buy in is £5, payout is £10 for 3rd, £20 for 2nd, £50-£70 for first. Also points for the league too, 100 for first down to 20 for 8th with everyone else getting 10.

On average you want to be called as you have say 99+ AQ (and bounty hand) in that range so you don't want to strengthen their calling range by showing and suggesting you're only doing it with AA and bounty hand

Going into the game and not using any of these tactics before I'd go allin bar one chip with Aces, and open with the bounty hand normally and triple barrel.

The way the game plays there I'm pretty sure if I go almost all in the others will see the chance of me having any hand other than the bounty hand as almost non-existent - the first time I did it anyway!

I guess you're right though that if I don't get called, and I muck, then my range opens for if I do it again in the future. I think that will give me a good chance of doing it again with Aces and getting called, but I'd be better off not doing it if I got the bounty hand and then lucky's suggested play would be better.

Although, saying that, if I do it with Aces and they see it, especially if I do it more than once, that could increase the chances of them all folding if I do it with the bounty hand!