Strategy Snapshot: Terror Twilight

Legendary online fearmonger TerrorofSweden gets put to bed by an equally legendary Dang brother in this edition of the Strategy Snapshot.

Players:

Seat 1: Hac "trex313" Dang ($92,461.10)
Seat 2: TerrorOfSweden ($83,145.50)

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

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

The Setup

The hand starts out with Hac "trex313" Dang raising from the button/small blind to $1,800. TerrorOfSweden, widely known to be high-stakes player Mohamad Kowssarie and henceforth referred to as TOS for simplicity's sake, three-bets to $4,200.

Dang tanks and eventually puts in a rare fourth raise to $11,800; TOS flat-calls.

The flop comes K 6 J and TOS checks. Dang elects to check behind.

The turn comes 7 and TOS bets out $21,000 into $23,600. Dang lets all his time run down before shoving all-in for $80,661. TOS eventually calls off all his chips and is on the come with the A Q versus Dang's Q Q.

The river comes the bricky 4, and the $166,290 pot is awarded to Hac Dang.

The Breakdown

Hac starts the hand out with a raise from the button, holding Q Q. Big pocket pairs are huge hands heads-up. Considering that most hands are won by one pair at showdown, starting out with the third biggest pair constitutes a pretty substantial advantage.

TOS three-bets from out of position with A Q. Although Dang did raise the button with a big hand, if you look at the entire range he would normally raise the button with, it's a lot wider. A Q is a big favorite to that entire range and warrants the three-bet.

Kowssarie: Doesn't see the accident coming.

The pre-flop action doesn't end there, however: Dang puts in a fourth bet, a raise to $11,800.

Dang raises for the aforementioned reasons. He is a large favorite with QQ and would like to get as much money in as possible before the flop.

TOS tanks and calls. A Q is no slouch and is a hand that can still see a flop despite the heavy pre-flop action.

When the flop comes K 6 J, TOS elects to check and Dang chooses to check behind. TOS checks because he is out of position and only has a weak gut-shot and an overcard. That said, he would likely check no matter what came, since Dang put in the last raise before the flop.

Dang checks behind because TOS' range consists of hands he is either way ahead or way behind to. Once TOS calls the four-bet, his range consists of monsters like KK, AA and smaller pocket pairs, as well as big aces other than A-K.

The reason he is unlikely to have A-K is because A-K would almost always be raised all-in.

Dang's check on this flop is designed to allow TOS to hang himself by betting most turn cards. The reason Dang feels his hand is good right now is because TOS' range is very unlikely to have a king in it.

A-K would be shoved, and K-Q would be folded. So TOS either has a slow-played AA or KK, or a hand that is worse than QQ. Thus he chooses to check behind.

The turn comes 7 and TOS now bets almost full pot, $21,000 into $23,600. Now TOS has the nut-flush draw, a gut-shot to the nut straight, and one overcard to the board. If Dang has a pair of kings or less he has as many as 15 outs.

This bet is a strong semi-bluff relying mostly on Dang folding had he missed the flop completely. Nonetheless, if he is called, he has his many outs to fall back on.

Spoils of the war on terror.

Dang tanks for a while before shoving all-in for $80,661.

His plan works. If his (and I guess my) read is correct, he successfully coerces his opponent into getting himself pot-committed with a weaker hand. If Dang bet the flop TOS would have folded most of his range. By checking the flop, he allows TOS to hang himself on the turn.

TOS does eventually make the call but he is by no means drawing dead. He still has 15 outs to a winning hand.

Unfortunately for him, he misses those many outs when the river bricks out with the 4.

The $166,290 pot - 12th-biggest online so far this week - is shipped to Hac "trex313" Dang and, like Tommy Salo in the Salt Lake City Olympics, he's left wondering what went wrong.

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