Main Event Snapshot: Balmigere Makes World-Class Laydown

With the latest two Main Event episodes airing last night, we're now down to the final two tables.

This week we saw Ivey looking ridiculously human mucking a flush with no action on the river (late night at Bobby's Room anyone?) and Nick Maimone looking Moneymakeresque, getting in bad and hitting every time.

We were also forced to suffer through more of Norman Chad's stupid jokes and awful poker commentary.

Side note: If I have to listen to Norman Chad tell one more person to "bet to see where he's at" I'm going to kill a kitten.

But I digress. This week's snapshot comes not from this week's broadcast but from last week's. It was a hand too good to pass up and we really didn't see any hands played to the river on the latest broadcasts.

Without further ado.

The Setup:

With the blinds 50,000/100,000 and a 10,000 ante, Joe Cada raises it to 250,000 from under the gun.

Francois Balmigere calls in middle position and so does the chip leader, Darvin Moon, on the button.

The blinds fold and the flop comes T Q K. Cada checks and Balmigere fires 550,000. Moon calls and Cada gets out of the way.

The turn comes 2 and Balmigere fires 1,075,000. Moon raises to 2,200,000 and Balmigere tanks before calling.

Easy game.

The river comes 5. Balmigere checks and Moon fires 2,000,000. Balimigere agonizes before folding the T T and the flopped bottom set.

Moon tells him nice laydown and mucks the A J for the flopped nuts.

The Breakdown:

Cada kicks off the hand with a raise from UTG with K 5.

A play I would advise not making a habit out of, but with 340,000 in the pot before the cards are dealt, stealing the blinds is a big deal and often UTG raises are given a lot of credit.

Balmigere makes the call in middle position with T T. He isn't about to re-raise this UTG raise so he chooses to see a flop with position on the original raiser.

Darvin Moon calls as well on the button with the A J. With a good ace and a ton of chips - and position - he also sees a flop.

When the flop comes K Q T, Cade checks. Though he has top pair, he knows that flop is very likely to have smacked his two opponents in the face.

Balmigere bets more than half-pot for value with his bottom set. He's obviously looking for a call from any king or any pair + draw.

Unfortunately for the Frenchman, Darvin Moon flopped the nuts behind him and chooses to just flat-call to trap.

Cada gives up knowing his top pair is no good. The turn comes the 2 and Balmigere bets 1,075,000 into just over 2,000,0000.

He bets the turn for the same reasons he bets the flop. He likely puts Moon on a good king or two pair and knows Moon will call.

I believe they are the Ragin' Cajuns. Did I mention I'm divorced? Bet to see where you're at! Etc. Etc.

Moon, however, has the nuts and min-raises to 2,200,000.

With the nuts, Moon doesn't want to scare his opponent off. But he really should be raising larger to get value from sets and two pairs - especially because if the board pairs, it's unlikely he's going to get away from the hand.

Balmigere does just call, begging for the board to pair. Unfortunately it bricks off with the 5 and he checks to Moon.

Moon bets 2,200,00 into 6,470.000 - a fairly small bet designed to get value from sets and unlikely two pairs. Balmigere tanks and eventually folds his set.

A very, very good fold. One that I was screaming at him to make, but hey I'm watching on TV and he's at the table making it.

Its a great fold because Darvin Moon was playing tight and very ABC. There's literally a 0% chance Moon is bluffing on that river so Balmigere just has to decide if he's value-betting worse.

Which, given how the hand played out, is also very unlikely.

Someone playing so ABC is very unlikely to raise the turn with two pair. And even if he did, once he was called he would almost surely be looking to see a showdown on the river - not betting it for value.

So that leaves better sets and straights, neither of which Balmigere can beat. So he folds, despite getting solid odds on calling the river bet.

A great fold that, unfortunately, wasn't enough and Balmigere was bounced on this week's episodes.

Solid hand and a pretty good Main Event so far. Looking forward to some November Nine action.