In this post we look at a crazy hand played on the Final Table of the 2019 Barcelona EPT. In this hand both opponents flop a monster but one hand has a slight edge that ends up playing a huge difference!
With 7 Players left Marton Czuczor raises UTG+1
With blinds at 100k/200k he makes it 450k with Q♠ J♠
Action is folded to the Big Blind where Yunye Lu looks down at Q♥ J♦ with 200k already committed to the pot, he flicks in the other 250k and we see a flop heads up…
Pre-flop Ranges
This is a solid open from Marton Czuczor on this tight table having a decent stack to put ICM pressure on the shorter players, QJs is probably around the bottom of our range to open here 7 handed, we could maybe work in some other slightly worse hands like JTs and T9s on occasion too but QJs is fine to open all the time here, it has a high card value and good post flop playability.
As for Lu’s defend here, he is getting a good price on the pot just having to call 250,000 to have a chance at winning the 1,200,000 pot QJo is going to make a fine defend, we can look to defend fairly wide off this kind of shallow stack depth as Lu started with around 16BBs he is going to have some easy decisions when it comes to which hands he can continue with post flop with his SPR being around 2.6:1 with 3Million back and 1.2Million in the middle.
Let’s take a Flop
What an action flop we have for this $5k EPT final table…
J♣ 5♠ J♥
Both Players flop three of a kind Jacks! Marton Czuczor has the slight edge here with a 5% advantage for the times the board will run out with spades and give him the flush.
Lu Checks the action over to Czuczor who continues for a small bet of 250k, this is what we call a “down bet” when the size of the flop bet is smaller than the pre-flop raise amount.
This is a good sizing on this board, he would probably make this bet with a bunch of his hands to protect his equity and remaining in control of the betting, good Ace high hands and any pair above the five onboard 66-AA, therefore, the bet builds value whilst being fairly balanced as neither too strong or too weak…
I would like to see a check back here some of the time as we have the board pretty locked up here and it’s going to be hard for our opponents to find hands to be able to continue with a lot of the time and our holding is so strong we can afford for them to catch up a little and possibly bluff the turn.
Lu decides to smooth call the bet and we see a turn card…
Turn Action
The Turn card brings T♠
Czuczor now has a 21% chance of his miracle backdoor flush becoming a reality!
Yunye Lu decides to lead this turn card for value with his three of kind at this point, betting 500k into the now 1.8M in the middle…
I think this is a good play, we risk Czuczor checking back with a tonne of hands on this turn card that might pick up equity, like KQs, AK, AQ which all have straight draws and any two spades that will have a flush draw.
Czuczor has little reason to raise, he has three of a kind and a flush draw and basically has the board locked up, he doesn’t want to blow Lu off this pot and raising may mean he will only get action when he is beat in this spot.
World Class River Action
This is where the hand comes to life… With the 9♠ hitting the River
Completing Marton Czuczor’s backdoor flush draw and giving him the winner.
Yunye Lu now continues to bet, leading out for 1,000,000 leaving himself just 1,200,000 or 6BBs in his stack…
This puts Czuczor in a strange spot, should he raise to get the rest of Lu’s stack?
The veteran Pro ends up doing exactly that, putting him all in for his remaining 1.2M and Lu goes into the tank.
This is a crazy spot where Czuczor could seemingly never be bluffing with such a short stack behind, however for the times that Lu is getting coolered on this wet river card that completes straights like KQ and flushes he does have the option to bet fold as if his opponent has three of kind like himself he is not going to find a raise on this river card.
Lu takes up a few time extension cards and makes what can only be described as a world-class fold. His bet fold line on this card might be one of the best moves on the final table, he could have got value from hands like AT, J8s, any other QJo combo, QQ, KK, AA will most likely call this bet too, however when he has been rivered he can get away leaving himself alive in the tournament.
But is there much point in having 6BBs left with 7 players left on the EPT Final table? What if Czuczor is just bluffing him?!
Well, it turns out to have worked out perfectly for Lu in a vacuum here because he managed to survive another pay jump with his short stack and bag himself another €70,000! That’s 14 EPT main event buy-ins!
So what can we learn from this?
Don’t get emotionally attachted to strong hands and always look for huge board changing cards, this river card brought in a tonne of better hands like straights and flushes.
Have bet folds in your arsenal that can get called by worse hands but put yourself in a spot where you can get away if your opponent raises, this is going to be better than having check folds or calls because you will get value sometimes, save yourself being put all in other times and be able to make good folds for the times your opponent does find the hero raise.
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