Loading...Strategy Snapshot: Baron Takes a Whiff
Published by: Daniel Skolovy
Posted In: The Poker Reporter Blog, Strategy Snapshots
Today's snapshot comes from a rare high-stakes six-max No-Limit Hold'em game on Full Tilt Poker and involves two young online giants, David Benefield and Isaac Baron.Players: Isaac "the guru 11" Baron vs. David "Aeron73" Benefield
Game: $200/$400 Six-max, No-Limit Hold'em, Full Tilt Poker
Stack Sizes:
Seat 1: Ariel "DaEvils" Schneller ($48,391)
Seat 2: Isaac "the guru 11" Baron ($52,991)
Seat 3: prtectyaneck ($41,400)
Seat 4: Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galafond ($39,600)
Seat 5: David "Aeron73" Benefield ($66,131.40)
Seat 6: Pigiama81 ($60,991)
(Hand history and stats from PL.com MarketPulse Biggest Pots section.)
The Setup
It's folded around to Isaac "the guru 11" Baron, who is also (and better) known as westmenloAA online and will henceforth be referred to as such. He raises it to $1,400 from the cut-off.
prtectyaneck and OMGClayAiken get out of the way, and David "Aeron73" Benefield (also better known as "raptor," which we'll use from here on in) elects to flat-call the $1,400 out of the big blind.
westmenlo: Visual facsimile of him firing $2,400 c-bet.
They see a flop heads-up of 9
5
4. raptor checks to the pre-flop raiser and westmenloAA fires a continuation bet of $2,400. raptor thinks for a moment before check-raising to $7,600. Menlo takes his time before eventually calling the check-raise.
The turn drops down Q and raptor continues his aggression by firing a $12,600 barrel. westmenloAA again takes his time before flat-calling.
The river drops the 3
and raptor shoves all-in. menlo requests time and finally decides to call the $31,391 with Q J. menlo's top pair, jack kicker is good against raptor's A J for the busted flush draw.
westmenloAA is shipped the $106,182 pot thanks to a lucky turn queen, and raptor is left to curse his luck.
The Breakdown
The hand begins with a $1,400 raise from the cut-off by westmenloAA with Q J. This raise is completely standard in a six-max game online. Both OMGClayAiken and prtectyaneck get out of the way and raptor elects to protect his BB with a flat-call with A J.
raptor's smooth-call with A J is interesting. Most players with a good suited ace like A-J would elect to three-bet from out of the blinds. A reraise would force his opponent to define his hand and would also make the hand easier to play since he secures the initiative.
The smooth-call is not without its own merits, however. It disguises the strength of his hand and it also allows his opponent to continue with hands that he dominates.
For example, a worse ace or a worse jack would fold to a reraise, but westmenloAA would likely continue with them should raptor flat-call.
Must believe raptor is check-raising with nothing.
raptor decides to go with the latter.
The 9 5 4 flop is a great one for raptor, who flops overcards and the nut-flush draw. He checks over to westmenloAA, who fires a standard continuation bet of $2,400. Now raptor springs his trap and check-raises to $7,600 with his robust draw.
This bet is a very strong semi-bluff - he currently does not have a hand, but against top pair or a weak overpair he has 15 outs. Plus he stands to win the pot immediately a high percentage of the time.
His hand is so strong that if westmenloAA were to reraise, you can guarantee that raptor would happily get it in. westmenloAA, however, does not raise - he calls, which is very peculiar.
To start, he has no pair and no draw. The only possible reason for calling this flop check-raise is he believed raptor's check-raise was weak. westmenloAA must have believed raptor was check-raising with nothing.
Thus he flat-calls the flop check-raise with nothing in order to take the pot away from raptor on the turn.
The turn changes things completely when it brings the Q. raptor, who has shown a good amount of aggression on the flop with a check-raise, follows that up with a second barrel, this one $12,600.
westmenloAA, who was likely planning to raise (or bet the turn if checked to, regardless of what came), now switches to call-down mode. The reason is this: If the turn came a blank he would go with his read that raptor was FOS and he would try and take the pot off him.
However, the turn was not a blank. In fact, it now gives him top pair. There is no reason to turn a hand with great showdown value into a bluff.
So rather than raising and turning his hand into a bluff, he chooses to smooth-call. The smooth-call allows his opponent to continue betting with worse hands, whereas raising folds most of these out.
The river drops 3 and raptor now moves all-in. This bet in my opinion is fairly spewy. raptor is not going to get any better hands to fold after they called the previous two streets.
The best move would be a very difficult check-fold. However, that's tough to do when you're in the heat of battle and you have just whiffed all of your outs.
Questionable decision to appeal to god-like power, but worth $106k in the end.
westmenloAA's call is a good one. Because he called the turn, he surely has to call the river, as the pot is too big to fold and his hand is too strong versus raptor's range. He was incredibly lucky to catch a three-outer on the turn and then luckier still to dodge raptor's 12 remaining outs on the river.
Luck, however, comes with playing thousands and thousands of poker hands and for that he is awarded the $106,182 pot.
This hand was for the most part well played by both players. raptor was completely correct to fast-play such a huge draw on the flop. He was unlucky for his opponent to catch the three-out queen on the turn; the river shove was maybe a bit spewy, but fairly understandable.
westmenloAA, on the other hand, made a questionable decision to float raptor's flop check-raise, but then played the hand very well from that point on.
All in all, an interesting hand from a fairly rare six-max game at higher stakes.
To see more hand histories from their session, or more of the Top 100 biggest pots online over the last day, week, month and year, jump to the PokerListings.com MarketPulse section.
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