Keep playing up that image

Today’s hand involves pocket aces, the best starting hand in hold ‘em. This hand also involves medium suited connectors, the best hand with which to crack aces. And this hand involves 9-10 offsuit, a hand that opened for a raise and busted the other two opponents.

The key is the player holding the worst starting hand showing how an aggressive, bluffing image can get you paid when you actually hit a hand. At the $25,000-buy-in World Poker Tour Championship at Las Vegas’ Bellagio, with blinds at $400-$800 plus a $100 ante, wild young pro Faraz Jaka raised to $2,400 with 9-10 offsuit.

“I was in late position, and I have a ton of chips,” said Jaka, who earned more than $1.7 million in tournament prize money in 2009.

British pro Joe Beevers called from the button. The player in the small blind raised an additional $5,000.

“It wasn’t much to my stack,” said Jaka, who had about $180,000, “plus my implied odds are great because he made it so small. There was another player in the pot who I felt would call too. Plus I had position. There were a lot of reasons to see a flop.

“On top of that, the guy in the small blind and I had a history. I felt that he was frustrated with me enough that if I hit anything, it’s close to guaranteed that I’d get paid off.”

Beevers also called, so three players took a flop of 8-J-7, rainbow. Jaka flopped the straight. After the small blind checked, Jaka made it $16,000.

“I bet it kind of big because I felt he had a big hand, and I felt he was trying to control the pot,” said Jaka. “So I wanted to force a bigger pot.”

Beevers raised all-in for an additional $44,000. The initial re-raiser moved all in for his remaining $125,000. Having both players covered, Jaka called.

Beevers turned over 8-7 of spades, giving him bottom two pair and a straight draw. The small blind showed pocket aces.

“A lot of players will fold aces after a big bet and a big re-raise,” Jaka said, “but I’m pretty sure the original re-raiser thinks I’m full of it too, so that’s why he was putting it in light with his aces. Because we had that history, that dynamic, he ended up putting it in. That makes my argument that my implied pot odds were huge because of our history.”

The turn came the jack of hearts, creating potential full houses for Jaka’s opponents, but the river came the queen of hearts, and Jaka eliminated both.

“The lesson is,” Jaka said, “if you have that kind of a wild image, you can play hands like that and you’ll get paid off. If you don’t have that kind of image, you can’t make much money on those kinds of hands.”

Table talk

Putting it in light: Calling, betting or raising with a hand weaker than the action indicates you would need.

srosenbloom@tribune.com