DECISION POINT: In a daily deep stack tournament with blinds at 250/500 and a 500 big blind ante, you’ve observed the table as being mostly passive with a lot of checking, calling, and very little 3-betting preflop. First to act in the UTG seat, you open to 1,200 with K♥J♥ and action folds to the Big Blind who calls. Your opponent checks the Q♠T♠9♠ flop, you c-bet 800, and they call. The turn is 4♥ and the Big Blind checks. Action is on you, what do you do here?

PRO ANSWER: We are playing a daily deep stacked tournament. The blinds are 250/500 with a 500 big blind ante. Most of the table has been fairly passive with a lot of checking and calling, as well as very little 3-betting preflop. We have 25,000 chips and the rest of the table has between 15,000-30,000 chips.

We are dealt K♥J♥ Under the Gun. While opening a tight range in early position is preferrable, KJs is easily strong enough to open, particularly at a passive table where we are unlikely to get 3-bet frequently. We open to 1,200 chips and everyone folds to the Big Blind who just calls.

The flop is Q♠T♠9♠ and we have flopped a straight on a monotone board. Our opponent in the Big Blind checks and action is on us. Monotone boards are very unique in No-Limit Hold’em. As the preflop aggressor in a heads up pot we often retain a significant range advantage, which means we should be continuation betting frequently. In fact, in many situations it will be strategically correct to continuation bet on monotone boards with 100% of our range.

The Big Blind’s defending range has a lot of hands that have completely missed with no pair and no draw that will automatically fold to any size bet. We need to choose a size that gives a good price on our bluffs while still allowing flexibility to size up on various turns and rivers against the part of our opponent’s range that has connected in some way, both for value and as a bluff.

We bet 800 chips (around 25% of the pot) and the Big Blind calls. The turn is the 4♥ and our opponent checks to us. Given our small flop bet size, the Big Blind will still have a fairly wide range on the turn including a lot of one pair hands as well as some Jx and combos containing a single spade. The Big Blind would have also preferred to check-raise some of the more vulnerable made hands on the flop such as small flushes.

These combined factors make this an excellent opportunity for us to fire a second barrel on the turn and extract value, as well as apply pressure against most of the Big Blind’s range. Many players are tempted to either check behind or bet small in this spot, fearing that they may be up against a flush. Since many of our opponent’s bigger hands would have raised the flop, it is quite likely (although never certain) we have the best hand, and we should bet bigger for value.

Betting 2/3 to 3/4 of the pot (3,000-3,500 chips) is the best play.