We are back again with another review of some of the best pots from the latest episode of High Stakes Poker Season 8!

Bluff Catch for Ivey

Early in the show, Ivey looked to isolate Hernandez with an offsuit Ace, he followed through on the Flop with a continuation bet and when he paired his Ace on the Turn he didn’t slow down.

Hernandez would have probably taken down the pot with any kind of aggression on the Flop with his open-ended draw, but chose the passive line instead.

Ivey fired again after paring up on the Turn and his opponent continued to chase… the River brought another Jack, so if Hernandez was coming along with a pair of Jacks he now beat Ivey’s pair of Aces, but with this not being too likely and a bunch of straight draws well within Hernandez’s range Ivey check-called a $27,000 bet on the River and scooped the pot.

This is an example of getting huge value from Ivey, most people would have slowed down on the Turn looking to get to showdown, or block bet the River, but he seems to know exactly how to get the most value from Hernandez’s range in this spot.

Phil’s Trap Failed

Playing a multiway pot with Jacks, Phil gave up his betting lead on the Flop with two Kings on board… James Bord picked up the betting lead with just Ace high in spades and his backdoor draw.

He paired up on the Turn and took the lead from Phil and decided to change from betting as presumably a bluff to value, with a small bet to look to get to showdown.

I like this line of play, we can’t get huge value here, but we can win a small bet from pairs like Phil has and check back the River. Alternatively, I wouldn’t hate to see a check here and play as if we have a pair of Tens and look to go for some value on the River, but this is definitely a two street for value hand, if any more money goes in, we are certainly not winning the whole pot at least.

Phil called the Turn bet and when he saw his opponents holding we got a little taste of the Poker Brat in action with a patented stand up and vent of his frustrations.

Flop a Set and Bet Huge

This pot started with a UTG raise from Tom and a 3-Bet from the straddle by Palihapitiya. Tom continues with his 75o in this pot, which he probably feels with position against an Amateur is a decent play. However, personally, I think we can look to continue you in this spot with so many other better holdings we can start to throw away such a low offsuit connector like this.

Our opponent is going to have some really strong hands within their range here because the pot is already heads up and they are looking to bloat it considerably whilst out of position, that wreaks of strength because they aren’t even looking to knock players out of the pot anymore.

This is a line you wouldn’t see too often from players, even on a draw heavy board like this, no one would really ever bet so huge with a set here… we just have too much of the board locked up and we want to keep our opponent in with much weaker holdings.

However, that’s where amateurs and their unconventional lines can win huge pots sometimes… It certainly looks like he is just trying to take down the pot here and Tom flopping a pair looks to continue.

Narrow Range and Polarised Bet

So when the Turn completed Palihapitiya the Billionaires quad draw and gave him four nines, he now checks. A good play, we now want Tom to catch up and with such a small pot to stack ratio, we can just look to move all-in on the River for value.

Tom checks behind and the River completes some draws and Palihapitiya bets almost all-in, with his $85,000 sizing. The problem when you’re in Tom’s shoes is now Palihapitiya either has a Full House, Quads or nothing here, because he would never choose this sizing with a hand like Queens.

Continuing with Tom’s problem, that’s not many hands that Palihapitiya can have! Whereas all the missed draws in spades like AK, AQ, AJ, KQ, in spades all missed and that’s just if his opponent had one of these suited combinations, if he ever fires the flop with a hand like AKo and AQo then that’s a whole bunch of other combinations that can now look to win on the River.

So whilst it might look crazy, Tom has a pretty decent calling hand here, he doesn’t block any overcard hands or spades and he has blockers to 55 and 77 too, which aren’t super relevant, but you never know. He does end up making the call and gets shown the nutter butters in the shape of every nine in the deck.
There was plenty more action in this episode, so make sure to tune in to PokerGo and watch the full show!