World Is Not Enough

Friday, June 6, 2008

Strategy Snapshot: The World Is Not Enough

The WSOP is obviously the big game in town, but it's not keeping the high-stakes regulars off the online tables - particularly Hac "trex313" Dang, who scooped another $150k pot yesterday from world1969.

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

Players: Hac "trex313" Dang vs. world1969

Game: No-Limit Hold'em, heads-up, Full Tilt Poker

Stack Sizes: trex313 $134,796.50; world1969 $77,399.75

The Setup

world1969 raises from the small blind/button to $1,800. trex313 flat-calls out of position and they take a flop. The flop comes 7 9 T and trex313 donk-bets $3,000. world1969 raises to $10,200 and trex313 tanks before putting in another raise to $29,400.

world1969 is not put off his hand but instead shoves all-in for $75,599. trex313 makes the call and flips over A 2 for the nut flush draw and an overcard, whereas world1969 has 8 7 for bottom pair, plus an open-ender.

world1969 is ahead but will need to dodge trex313's 12 outs.

The turn bricks the 3 but the river brings the A and trex313 is shipped the $154,799 pot thanks to the Barry Greenstein-esque ace on the river.

The Breakdown

world1969 - still to be "outed" to the online community but rumored to be a well-known pro - brings the 8 7 in for a raise off the button. trex313 elects to flat-call with the A 2.

trex313 usually three-bets a suited ace in this position - I'm not quite sure why he didn't in this spot. It is possible that he had a read on world1969, or it is possible that he was just mixing his play up. Whatever the reason, he flats, and they see a flop.

The 7 9 T flop gives trex313 the nut flush draw. He elects to fast-play it and bets out $3,000. world1969, who has flopped bottom pair and an open-ended straight draw, has a huge hand. Against a hand like AA he has 13 outs.

Now the way trex313 has played this hand, he definitely does not have pocket aces, which means that world1969 is very confident in his hand. He chooses to raise to $10,200.

trex313, whose flush draw and overcard are worth a total of 12 outs versus KK or worse, also has a fairly robust hand. He decides that a semi-bluff three-bet may pick the pot up now. So he raises to $29,400.

If the raise fails, he can surely rely on the remaining 12 outs he has the rest of the time. I believe that trex313 was ideally looking for a fold but he felt getting it all-in would not be terrible either.

world1969 is not fooled by the reraise. He has excellent equity versus trex313's range and decides to shove his bottom pair plus straight draw. trex313, who is already in for over $30,000, has to call $46,199 to win $108,600.

trex313 makes the call and all 12 of his outs are alive. The turn bricks out the 3 but the river brings one of his 12 outs, and with that, trex313 adds another $150k pot to his resume.

To see more hand histories from the latest high-stakes sessions, and the rest 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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