In this next instalment of High Stakes Poker hands Broken down, we look at a Triple Barrell Bluff from our Hero Mike “The Mouth” Matusow from Season 2, Episode 3, we pick up the action in the video here…
Mike Matusow from UTG +1 opening the betting with a raise to $2100 with T♥ 6♥
Daniel Alaei calls in the Small Blind with 7♥ 4♥
& Michael Mizrachi looks down at T♠ 7♠ in the Big Blind and calls with $600 already invested flicking in the extra $1,500 closing the action with a suited gapped connector.
It’s worth noting at this point that the players are playing short handed so both the initial raise and the defence of the Big Blind seems fine, however flat calling in the Small Blind with a hand like Alaei’s here the 7♥ 4♥ can be troublesome, firstly it can be hard to realise your equity in multiway pots where you are out of position and secondly as is actually the case in this hand you can easily have your suit overcoated and could end up getting stacked in a flush over flush situation. As a general rule if are going to play these types of holdings it can be better to use them as part of a balanced 3Betting range from the blinds, merging hands like suited connectors with the top of your range is a good way to throw your opponents off guard as well as hit unsuspecting boards and win large pots that way too.
Off to the Flop
7♦ 5♦ K♠
Making back door straight and flush draws for Mike Matusow the original raiser and second pair for both our other players.
Both players quickly check to Matusow who decides to start overbetting the pot here with $9,000 into $6,800…
This is instantly polarising to Mike’s range, which means, he won’t do this with pocket Jacks or a second pair, he is going to do this with strong top pair hands like AK, KQ, KJ & KT to protect his equity against draws, or he will be doing this with absolutely nothing at all just looking to steal the pot.
This is important to note for the rest of the hand, as it can be a tripwire for letting you know if someone is up to no good, like if the flush comes in and they keep betting how many times is our opponent going to be overbetting this flop with a flush draw?
What happens next…
Alaei is in the squeeze spot which makes the Small blind so hard to play from, you act first post flop and are then sandwiched, in-between other players when the player in position bets, yet another reason why it is hard to realise your equity in this spot, making it almost always a 3Bet or Fold spot. Even after hitting a pair and back door straight draw, due to the pressure of this position Alaei lays it down and its over to Mizrachi…
Holding T♠ 7♠ on this board is a decent holding with second pair being good sometimes and a backdoor flush draw as a back up too… there isn’t any other move here other than maybe sometimes mixing in some folds to tighter opponents, I like the call on this board, so it’s off to the turn card…
The Turn
Brings 5♣ Making the board now 7♦ 5♦ K♠ 5♣
This is a good card for our range in this spot and not as good of a card for the range of our opponent, as we can have 75, A5, K5, as well as any 5♠ x♠ combos that would take a card off with back door spades. like 5♠ 4♠, 5♠ 6♠, 5♠ 8♠ , etc whereas our opponent in this spot can’t have any of these combinations other than possibly A♦ 5♦ and K5.
This means we have a big range advantage on our opponent here, so they should be less likely to bet as Top pair hands are now weaker with the possibility of three of a kind in our hand being fairly often.
Mizrachi continues with a Check, which is a good line, we could look to check raise here with a great deal of our range, so we are protected with weaker holdings that we make this far with like just a pair of Sevens.
Matusow bets $16,000 this rules out almost all flush draws that may have bet flop as those would nearly always want to realise their equity on this dicey turn card and get to showdown and possibly hit the draw for free, so once again Matusow is polarised here to pretty much a full house such as K5, KK or A♦ 5♦
The commentators say something along the lines of this looks like Mike is telling a story of KQ here, however, KQ is not a snap bet on this turn card, getting check-raised off of top pair here would be a disaster and what hands are you going to get 3 streets of value from with just KQ on this board?
Mizrachi buckles up and it’s off to the River we go…
A Blank
2♠ Hits the end, Making the final board 7♦ 5♦ K♠ 5♣ 2♠
Mizrachi checks again and Mike Matusow bets $20,000 with $56,800 out there, swelling the total pot to $76,800.
So if we are in Mizrachi’s position here, we need to call $20,000 to win $76,800 which means we are getting almost 4/1 on a call meaning we only need to be right around 25% of the time here to make this call correct… A decent offer with such a small river bet here.
If we look at this pot from Matusow’s point here, if we ever are going to fire all 3 streets on this run out I’d prefer to see a bigger sizing on this river to put our opponents in a tougher spot needing to have the best hand more often to be able to call, however as played Matusow drags the pot with this creative and gutsy play.