| 18+ | Play Responsibly | T&C Apply
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
Expired
header-bg

Hand of the Week: McKeehen Bats Blumenfield Aside

There weren’t too many interesting hands at the final table of the WSOP 2015.

Main Event champ Joe McKeehen ran well but he’s also a great player.

He used his dominant chip lead well and was never at risk, and it was more than just luck that earned him the title.

On the last day of the world championship Neil Blumenfield tried to force him out of a hand but couldn’t tell a convincing story.

Flop to River

There are three players left in the November Nine and Joe McKeehen has already amassed 129 million chips for a massive lead.

Neil Blumenfield has 35 million, which is still good enough for the second largest stack as Josh Beckley only has 29 million.

The blinds are at 500k/1000k/150k. Beckley folds the button and McKeehen fills up with  K clubs K 10 clubs 10    

Now Blumenfield raises to three million, which McKeehen calls. There's 6.45 million chips in the pot. The flop is 10 diamonds 10 6 clubs 6 3 clubs 3

McKeehen checks, Blumenfield bets 2.2 million and McKeehen calls. There's now 10.85 million chips in the pot.

The turn is the 7 diamonds 7

McKeehen checks again, Blumenfield leads out for 3.5 million and McKeehen calls again. The pot has grown to 17.85 million.

The river is the 5 clubs 5  

McKeehen checks a third time and Blumenfield bets seven million. This does make McKeehen think. He tries to get Blumenfield involved in a little dialog but he is unresponsive.

Eventually McKeehen calls and Blumenfield has to show a complete bluff with  Q hearts Q 8 diamonds 8    

That’s another 32 million that goes over to Joe McKeehen. It takes only a few more hands until Blumenfield busts in third place and McKeehen has no trouble winning the tournament.

Hand Analysis

Neil Blumenfield definitely shows a lot of courage in this hand but did he also play it well? Let’s see.

Pre-flop, McKeehen varies his game well and doesn’t go for the aggressive raise. Holding K-To he holds the best hand most of the time but he elects to just call.

Blumenfield tries to exploit that immediately and raises to 3m with his rather mediocre Q♥ 8♦. This move doesn’t make a lot of sense as McKeehen is probably not going to call with a worse hand.

Blumenfield should probably just use his position and check with his mediocre hand. Q-8o is not a hand that wins a lot of big pots because it doesn’t offer a lot of possibilities for a hidden monster.

Joe McKeehen Day8
Not gonna call with worse.

Blumenfield Continues to Bite

On the T♦ 6♣ 3♣ flop McKeehen pairs his ten and then standard-checks over to his opponent.

Heads-up he’s ahead with top pair most of the time but Blumenfield did represent a strong hand with his pre-flop raise.

All the pocket pairs are in his range but also a lot of Broadway hands that didn’t hit this flop. And, of course, there are also the inevitable bluffs.

Blumenfield’s c-bet is standard as is McKeehen’s call. As he is usually ahead on this flop he doesn’t want to drive bluffs and worse hands away.

The turn is the 7♦, which almost never changes anything, so McKeehen calling the next bet from Blumenfield is again the correct move.

Blumenfield actually found a gutshot on the turn, and if a queen falls he’d probably also win, so bluffing here is acceptable.

He sticks to his betting story and he probably has seven outs.

Give Up or Not?

After McKeehen doesn’t budge on the turn the river 5♣ is an interesting card. It helps McKeehen’s range a lot more than Blumenfield’s.

Neil Blumenfield3
Give up or not?

However, from McKeehen’s point of view, this card bears some risk as any four now makes a straight and the club flush draw came in.

Checking again is the proper move and that applies to his full range.

Blumenfield has now already bluffed three times (pre-flop, on the flop, on the turn), and he’s facing a decision – should he give up on his hand or not?

If he checks he loses 8.7 million chips as he knows he’s definitely behind. But he would still be pretty much on par with Beckley in third place.

The other option for him is to bluff, but if he pulls this off he has to think about whether he can tell a credible story and what his opponent’s range is.

More Room Between Him and Rest of Field

McKeehen’s range has tens, sets and flush draws in it, which have all hit by now. He would probably fold all the other hands on the turn.

Blumenfield’s range on the other hand – think back to the beginning of our analysis – has mostly pairs and high cards in it.

McKeehen Win11
Good more than lucky.

All these are hands this board didn’t help much. If Blumenfield bets again he basically represents a set or a flush, whereas he would probably slow down with a hand like queens or ace-ten.

Thus, his bet often looks like a bluff. And if this hand hadn’t been so important McKeehen probably would have called even quicker.

At the end of the day the chipleader made the correct decision and put even more room between him and the rest of the field.

Conclusion

Blumenfield tries to push through at all costs in this hand but there are several holes in his story.

It all started with the pre-flop raise and, although he showed a lot of courage on the later streets, it didn’t pay off.

McKeehen didn’t go anywhere with the best hand -- partly because he could afford losing the hand without the fear of grave consequences.

Instead, he took a big step towards his eventual victory.

Related Articles

Unibet Poker Open 2023
Unibet Open Bukarest 2023 – Here we go!

Unibet Open Bukarest alkoi pari tuntia sitten, pahoittelut että blogi pääsee vauhtiin myöhässä. Syytetään Lufthansaa, joka onnistui eilen jättämään matkalaukkuni Frankfurtin kentälle. Nyt on laukku saatu tänne Bukarestin Marriottiin ja…

November 30, 2023 | Juhani Tyriseva
Unibet Poker Open 2023
Suomalaisten chip count, Event 1

Ville Mustonen 65K Aleksi Naski 265K Samuli Hietala 330K Jarno Jokiniemi 85K Max Avela 260K Kai Lehto 105K Feras Abid 130K Topi Palenius 95K Atte Franssila 85K Markku Vihavainen 50K…

September 16, 2023 | Juhani Tyriseva
Unibet Poker Open 2023
Voitonjako on selvillä

Ensimmäisen sormuskisan WSOPC Event 1, voitonjako on nyt selvillä. Turnauksen palkintopotti on 183.360€, ja 47 parasta pääsee rahoille. Turnauksen voittaja kuittaa mukavat 38.510€, ja min cash on 1.100€. Tällä hetkellä…

September 16, 2023 | Juhani Tyriseva
WSOP banner
WSOP Schedule 2020

The 2020 World Series of Poker kicks of in Las Vegas on May 27th. With a time frame of more than 7 weeks and 100 tournaments this will be the…

August 21, 2023 | Arved Klöhn
WSOP banner
Pikku tauon jälkeen jatketaan

Pidettiin pieni tauko, nyt peli jatkuu tasolla bb ante 4K, blindit 2K/4K. 111/573 pelaajaa.

July 25, 2023 | Juhani Tyriseva
melvin shroen live reports from The Festival in Nottingham 2023
PokerListings set to do Live Reporting from The Festival Series in Nottingham (13-19 February 2023) 

Melvin Schroen - Live Reporter For the first time in the history of The Festival Series, an event series is being held at the Dusk Till Dawn Pokerclub in Nottingham.…

March 22, 2023 | Melvin Schroen
PokerListings Awards 2022
PokerListings Operator Awards – Winners 2022

Since 2020, we have been awarding the best poker operators and innovators in the poker business with our PokerListings Operator Awards. Every year the operators are nominated and awarded in…

January 11, 2023 | Bjorne Lindberg
Oliver Hutchins Wins the Trophy in the €500K GTD PPC Malta Main Event (€71,000)

Oliver Hutchins Wins 2022 PPC Malta Main Event United Kingdom's Oliver Hutchins won the trophy in the €500,000 guaranteed PPC Malta €550 Main Event for €71,000 after a back and…

April 7, 2022 | Jason Glatzer
All Poker News

Comment on that

Your message is awaiting approval