Strategy Snapshot: OMG What Have I Done

Our latest snapshot comes from a huge session between Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond and, from the looks of his chat, a drunk $25/$50 pro taking a shot at his biggest game ever.

(Hand history and stats from PL.com MarketPulse Biggest Pots section.)

Players: Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond and GASSITT

Game: $300/$600 No-Limit Hold'em, Heads-Up, Full Tilt Poker

Stack Sizes: OMGClayAiken $56,999.50; GASSITT $63,000

The Setup

GASSITT raises from the small blind/button to $1,800. Galfond in the BB calls $1,200. The flop comes down 2 K 9.

Galfond checks and GASSITT continuation bets $2,400. Galfond, taking his time, raises to $7,200. GASSITT three-bets to $19,200 and Galfond shoves for $55,199 total. GASSITT makes the call.

The turn brings the Q and the river the T. Galfond tables K T for the rivered two pair and GASSITT turns over K 9 for the flopped smaller two pair.

Thanks to the T river, OMGClayAiken is the proud owner of a $113,998.50 pot.

The Breakdown

GASSITT makes a standard button raise with his K 9 heads-up. Galfond, who generally plays tighter than most, elects to smooth-call rather than three-bet with his K T.

Three-betting would balloon the pot and force Galfond to play a larger pot out of position, so by just calling he keeps the pot small and under-represents his hand.

The flop comes 2 K 9 and Galfond checks. GASSITT continuation bets $2,400, which he would do with the bulk of his range.

Galfond, with top pair, has a big hand heads-up and elects to check-raise to $7,200. This is often a good way to play a strong hand like this versus an aggressive opponent. By checking to him on the flop it allows him to bet with the entirety of his range, which you can then come over the top of.

Unfortunately for Galfond, though, GASSITT has flopped two pair and three-bets to $19,200.

This is a good play. GASSITT knows that Galfond knows that he is playing aggressive; thus, his three-bet may not be given much respect.

Galfond elects to shove all-in for $55,199 total. He may have done this because he thought GASSITT would smooth-call the check-raise and wait until the turn to make his move if he had a real hand.

He may also have believed that since he did not three-bet pre-flop his hand is very underrepresented here. Thus he feels that he can get paid off by a king with a worse kicker or a smaller pair.

Whatever his thought process, Galfond shoves and GASSITT calls with his top two pair. The turn bricks but the river brings the T and gives Galfond a bigger two pair. Galfond gets lucky and wins the pot.

End note: To say the suck-out in this hand was the beginning of the end for GASSITT is an understatement. At one point up $160k, he gradually gave it all back and then some, ending up on the losing end of two $200k+ pots and finishing somewhere around $250k in the hole.

To cap it off, his confessions in the chat box likely exposed a bit more about his drunken session than he may have planned.

To see more big pots from their session, or more of the top 100 biggest pots won online over the last day, week and month, jump to the PokerListings.com MarketPulse section.

More Strategy Snapshots:

• Strategy Snapshot: Throwing Money Away
• Strategy Snapshot: Play Scared; Get Bluffed
• Strategy Snapshot: The Ego Has Landed
• Strategy Snapshot: Of Draws and Monsters