Shawn's Turn: Play of the Day

My name is Shawn, and I am the lead game designer for Zynga Poker. I absolutely love Play of the Day.  I think POTD is one of the most interesting things we’ve done here at Zynga Poker involving the posting of fun and exciting content to a Facebook wall feed.

The feature captures your interesting moments while playing Zynga Poker and sharing them with your friends.  Pictures say a thousand words, and POTD delivers just that. 

The Zynga Poker team has developed one of the slickest hand replayers I’ve seen. I am a huge poker nerd, and I’ve seen more than my fair share of barebones hand re-players.  Instead of just replaying a hand, we try to show it off as your special moment.  It really does put you in the poker spotlight as the star of the show.

By opting in to Play of the Day, you will show off your most interesting experiences at the poker tables automatically. The hand we choose will most often be showcasing your success at the poker table, but no poker experience is complete without a bad beat story every once in a while.  Once POTD posts, you and your friends can like and comment on the hand in Facebook.

 OK, enough with the feature bragging… let me share with you a hand of my own from some recent action.

Background: I am deep in a $1,000,000 Sit-N-Go tourney with the blinds at 50/100.  I’m in the Big Blind with a loose, aggressive player to my left.  He’s been pushy in pots, often raising with less than premium hands.  Everyone else has been relatively passive, making moves only when they have the goods.

The Start: I have KQs 6-handed (six people at the table), which is solid. I think it’s worth taking a look at the flop in this position.  Admittedly, this is a big call based on chip stack sizes – I had the clear plan of folding this if I didn’t even get close after the flop.

The Flop: The flop hits 6-3-K rainbow (all different suits), and I’m obviously pleased.  Top pair is really good at this stage, especially against someone who I think will be raising with pretty much anything (though I think he has Ace-rag here, honestly, so it wasn’t a bad pre-flop raise on his part). 

I check – being out of position is less than ideal.  He bets 200 into a 650 pot (a weak C-bet), so I make the decision to ride this one out to the finish line.  I think a raise here would scare him off (he’s loose and aggressive, but he’s not dumb), so I call, thinking I have the best hand.  I plan to move on him at the turn provided an Ace doesn’t hit the board.

 

The Turn: The turn pairs the 3 on the board, which may be a little bit of a scare card if I thought he had a 3, but the chances of that are small so I still think I have the best of it.  I check, expecting my opponent to do a smallish bet again. 

This time, he bets 600 into a 1050 pot – he’s putting me to the test.  It’s time to move all-in, which is for 1020 – the remainder of my chips.  It’s an easy call for my opponent if he thinks he has something.  He does in fact call.

The River:  As my friend Jen would say, this was a gift from the poker gods.  Full boat!  I wish I could have seen what my opponent had, but I’ll take satisfaction instead from winning a juicy hand and becoming the new chip leader. And that’s what Play of the Day is all about!