Loading...Strategy Snapshot: Room for Pokering
Published by: Daniel Skolovy
Posted In: The Poker Reporter Blog, Strategy Snapshots
Online stalwart "present" plays some textbook high-level poker in this edition of the snapshot, getting the glory of a PL.com hand breakdown and $122k in value from Isaac Baron.Players: Isaac "the guru 11" Baron vs. present
Game: $200/$400 blinds No-Limit Hold'em, Full Tilt Poker
Stack Sizes: the guru 11 $61,194; present $76,200
(Hand history and stats from MarketPulse Biggest Pots section.)
The Setup
This hand starts out with present raising it up from the button/small blind to $1,200. Baron then three-bets to $4,400 from out of position.
present elects to flat-call the three bet and they take a flop of K
Q
7. Baron leads for $6,200 and present smooth-calls.
The turn brings the 9
and Baron fires again for $14,200. present elects to flat-call once again.
The river pairs the board with the 9 and Baron ships all-in for $36,394. present is now faced with a tough decision.
He takes up all of his time bank before eventually making the call. Baron flips up A J for the busted gut-shot straight draw, and present turns up K T for top pair, decent kicker.
Top pair is good for the $122,387 pot and the dubious honor of having your hand broken down by yours truly.
The Breakdown
present opens the hand with a standard raise from the button with K T. Two good broadway cards are at the top of present's button-raise range, meaning he is often raising here with a lot less.
Baron has A J, which is a big hand heads-up. He three-bets purely for value as he will get called by a number of worse hands. present calls the $3,200 more because the stacks are deep and there is a lot of room for pokering on the flop.
Deep stacks allow for more pokering.
The flop comes K Q 7 and Baron makes a continuation bet of $6,200. Another standard bet: he took the lead before the flop with a three-bet and he's now flopped a gut-shot straight draw and an overcard - more than enough to make a continuation bet.
The purpose of this bet is to win the pot immediately. If that doesn't happen, he still can improve on the turn.
present elects to flat-call with his top pair, decent kicker. Raising would effectively turn his hand into a bluff. No better hands will ever fold and very few worse hands will continue.
He elects to play the hand passively and let his overaggressive opponent continue the betting with his worse hands.
The turn is the 9, a relatively safe card. The only hand it completes is J-T for a straight. In these nosebleed-stakes games, open-ended straight draws are fast-played on the flop and thus both players can discount the chance their opponent has the straight.
That being the case, Baron elects to fire a second barrel - this one to the tune of $14,200.
present once again decides to just flat-call the bet. He's likely using the same thinking as on the flop. His hand is in a way ahead/way behind situation.
He knows the nine is unlikely to have helped his opponent. Therefore it's a pretty safe assumption that if he was ahead on the flop he's ahead on the turn; if he was behind on the flop, he still is. Either way there is no value in raising.
The river brings the 9, pairing the board. According to what we established on the last street, this means the board effectively bricks out. If present was drawing he would now have missed.
Baron elects to ship it in for $36,394. He does this because his perceived range is very strong. He three-bet pre-flop and then bet all three streets.
He is representing mad strength with this river shove, apparently hoping that present will give him respect and fold some of his weaker hands and/or busted draws.
present has a tough decision. His opponent's betting patterns are strong. These are typical of monsters, but they are also typical of busted draws.
His own hand is strong, but it is not a monster. If he were to completely believe his opponent, this would likely be a fold.
The two of them may have had history in the past where Baron multi-barrel bluffs. That plus the lack of the club on the river likely pushed present to make the call. There are just too many draws that may have missed to fold.
Baron: May have overestimated respect present would give. And how this shirt would look outside the store.
Also, he has top pair, which by all indications is always good in heads-up games. present does make the call and his top pair is good.
Overall this is a fairly interesting hand. Baron might have overestimated the respect his opponent would give him and made a hapless bluff on the end. The likelihood of it succeeding was minimal though after his opponent called two streets.
present played the hand well. He flopped a strong hand and let his aggressive opponent do the betting for him. This is a technique you can put into practice if you are a skilled hand reader; it is a great way to get value from a hand when raising will just force your opponent to fold.
All in all - GG.
To see 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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