In this post we are going to have a look at a hand from the Poker Go cash game recently played at Aria, with a star-studded line-up, there were many action pots and this is just one of the interesting ones
Pre-Flop Action
The action begins with blinds at $25/$50
Woods raises with 4♣ 3♥ to $200 from the Cut-Off
Matusow flat calls the raise on the button with A♦ 4♦
Cantu then picks up A♥ K♥ in the Big Blind and raises to $1200
Woods then calls the extra $1,000 and Matusow opts to fold on the Button
Let’s look at this Preflop action for a second, Woods’ decision here to open up with the 4♣ 3♥ is pretty terrible, we want to be opening a decent percentage of our range from the cut-off, maybe 30-40%, however, four high offsuit combinations aren’t going to be within that range, maybe occasionally mix in some 45s type hands, but this hand should have just hit the muck.
As for Matusows’ flat call on the button, it’s fine, if we know our opponent is opening this wide to our right we could easily just always 3-bet with any hand we are going to continue with, however with a hand like A♦ 4♦ taking flops in position is never going to be a bad move.
Then it’s over to Cantu, who opts for the big squeeze here from the Big Blind, attempting to get the pot much larger with this premium holding and hopefully get the pot heads up with this raise size. I like the sizing with two players in the pot and being out of position.
Woods ends up making the call of the squeeze raise with his monster four high! Matusow gets out of the way, a wise decision with his particular holding, I would like to see continues from any paired hand to set mine, however, with this suited Ace high I don’t hate a fold here…
If stacks were deeper a call would be fine, we are going to be able to realise our equity easily with this type of holding, so there won’t be many tough boards for us to play.
Let’s take a flop
The flop is 6♣ T♥ 5♣
A decent flop for the initial raiser Woods who flops an open-ended straight draw. In general, Cantu is still going to have the range advantage on this board though, having all hands from TT-AA.
The action starts on the flop with Cantu checking it over to Woods…
I’d like to see Woods get aggressive in this spot, his opponent’s hand almost feels face up as AQ or AK a good percentage of the time here as I think most overpairs would continue with a bet on this board to get value from all draws and hands including a Ten.
If you are going to raise and call 3-Bets with low connectors you aren’t really going to flop better than open-ended too often, so if you aren’t going to get aggressive on these boards then you shouldn’t be playing these holdings in the first place!
However, Barry Woods decides on taking the free card and avoiding getting check-raised and were off to see the turn card…
Turn Action
6♠ hits pairing the board
Cantu once again checks the action to Woods and for good reason, he wants to try and realise his equity and get to a cheap showdown and catch some bluffs with his hand, betting here wouldn’t make much sense as he doesn’t really have any sixes in his range at all…
Barry Woods now gets a little spicy here on the turn, once checked to twice he fires a decent-sized overbet here betting $4,000 into a pot of $2,675…
Cantu goes with his read that Woods is simply trying to buy the pot here and calls the bet with his Ace high and we take a river card…
River Action
So this is where it gets a little strange, the 3♠ hits the river making a pair for Woods, Cantu checks the action to him again.
Most players would just check here as they have hit some showdown value…
However this is where Woods flips the script and turns his hand into a bluff on the river, I guess his thinking is that when Cantu has hands like 77, 88 and 99, for example, he might get some folds out of those holdings.
He moves all-in for around $8,000 and the pressure is on for Cantu.
Does Cantu have to call with this hand?
I think the answer is no, he could have many better bluff catchers like 77–99 and even some overpairs or hands like ATs that was trapping/pot controlling the whole way, maybe even some hands like A5s that hit a pair and tried to get to showdown.
This is a good way to think of your hand when you are in a spot to call a bluff or not, you can try and think what other hands you might show up on the river with and work out if you have to call with this particular holding or if you will have better hands to work in as calls.
Cantu does end calling it off and gets shown the river value bluff of two pair from Woods.
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