Strategy Snapshot: The Ego Has Landed

Today's hand breakdown comes from a $150/$300 No-Limit session at Full Tilt Poker between Brian Hastings and poker-forum poster boy Patrik Antonius.

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

Players: Patrik "Finddagrind" Antonious and Brian Hastings

Game: $150/$300 No-Limit Hold'em, Heads-up, Full Tilt Poker

Stack Sizes: FinddaGrind $67,349; Brian Hastings $67,499

The Setup

Brian Hastings raises from the button/small blind to $900. PA three-bets to $2,700 and Hastings makes the call. The flop comes down Q 7 T and PA fires a continuation bet of $4,800 into the $5,400 pot. Hastings raises the flop bet to $12,900 and PA three-bets to $27,600.

Hastings takes his time, eventually shoving for $64,799 total. PA makes the call. Hastings shows A J for the nut flush draw and open-ender, and PA shows Q T for the flopped two pair.

The turn brings the 4, the river the 6 and the $134,697.50 pot gets shipped to the still newly minted Full Tilt pro Hastings.

The Breakdown

The hand opens up with a raise from the button/small blind by Hastings. His 3x button raise could signify almost any two but Hastings actually has A J, which is way ahead of his average button-raising range.

PA in the big blind knows button raises account for SFA heads-up; he three-bets with Q T. Hastings elects to flat-call the three-bet in position with his good ace rather than four-betting.

If the stack sizes were smaller, a four-bet would probably be likely; however, Hastings decides to just call and see a flop in position.

Handsome like the wolf.

The flop of Q 7 T is an action flop. PA fires a continuation bet with his flopped top-two. This bet is great because he would c-bet almost his entire range here, thereby almost disguising his monster.

Hastings also hits the flop hard, flopping a monster draw. He has the nut flush draw as well as a gut-shot straight draw and an overcard. That makes 12 outs to the nuts plus a possible extra two ace outs if PA only has a pair lower than aces.

Hastings elects to fast-play this monster draw by raising to $12,900. This is a strong semi-bluff, although his hand is so strong he won't mind getting it all-in on the flop, as we'll see.

When PA three-bets to $27,600, the only thing left for Hastings to do is get the rest of the money in and hope for the best. Hastings does just that, four-betting the flop all-in for a total of $64,799. PA makes the call and unfortunately for him his two pair can't hold when the 6 hits the river.

Playing combo draws aggressively is an absolute must in Hold'em - you're only a slight dog against even the best hands. For example, if PA had K-Q, Hastings would actually be a 51-49 favorite.

Against KK he would only be a 48% to 52% dog. Even against PA's flopped two pair he was only 42% to 58%. With all of the money in the pot Hastings is more than getting the right price on his money, even against PA's exact hand!

This hand was played very well by both opponents, as is only to be expected from two world-class players. Which begs the question, why were they playing each other to begin with? You would think not playing at all would be better than pitting yourself against one of the best in the world.

I guess nobody gets to the top without having a little ego, and what better way to test yourself than by playing high stakes with the apple of 2+2's eye, one Patrik Antonius.

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

More Strategy Snapshots:

• Strategy Snapshot: Of Draws and Monsters
• Strategy Snapshot: Love For the Open-Shove
• Strategy Snapshot: Check Check Check He Trap Me
• Strategy Snapshot: Ziggy's Star Dusted