We take a dive into Episode 2 of the newest season of High Stakes Poker, which in case you didn’t know you can check out on the PokerGo website right now!
Raising with 6 high UTG gets you in trouble
What you will notice more and more as the show goes on is how much the Pros are simply here to clash with the VIP players. This is a good thing to do at any poker table, look to get involved in pots with players you feel you have an edge on.
Tom Dwan takes it to an extreme here, opening UTG with 62s, this extremely wide open can only be due to the amateur Rick Salomon sat in the Straddle.
The flop goes 5 ways with Dwan throwing out a C-Bet on this dry flop, which is tough to connect with for a lot of hands that would call a raise pre-flop, apart from a hand like Bryn’s in this case… Bryn takes a card off with his open ender and backdoor flush draw and we go to a Turn.
Bryn Hits Gin!
This is the magical feeling we are all in the game for, Bryn spikes his open-ended straight, checks it over to the always aggressive Durrr and he fires out a chunky $42,000 into the pot.
Bryn must have been licking his lips here, but likely putting a lot of double-barrel bluffs in Tom’s range he smooth calls this card. Without trying to be too results orientated here and just looking at it with the cards shown, I’d like to see a raise here…
Anytime we can have semi-bluffs in our range like backdoor spade flush draws and we have the nuts, we can balance the spot with a raise for value because we might look to raise as a bluff in this spot with other holdings.
Bryn gets a horrible River on this run out with the 3 of spades hitting the end, making Tom’s two pair now look like a complete bluff catcher and checking back almost instantly. A little damage control for Tom here, because if this was a non-spade card above the board I can see him blasting off for value in this spot and then facing a horrible all-in from Bryn.
“A Little Greedy Value”
Right after this hand ended with Tom betting all three streets on this run out Nick Petrangelo leaned over to Tom and asked if that was a little greedy value bet? Tom nodded…
He had a pretty solid read on what Rick had in this spot, he wasn’t super strong and on any other non-front door flush completing card he could have got a cheeky third street of value here.
Against many other players, Tom would have immediately checked this one pair hand back to realise his equity, however, when playing someone that would probably play the game straight up almost 100% of the time and fold all non-showdown hands and never bluff raise, the spot to go for thin value does become more enticing.
In this particular case Rick couldn’t get the chips in the pot fast enough and took down the pot.
Dream Run Out for Bellande
Imagine flopping top set against the millionaire Maniac, riveting the top full house and facing a bet of $35,000… it’s the stuff that dreams are made of and although he’s better known as a game starter than a feared poker player, Bellande played this brilliantly.
He potted the Turn, getting max value from Salomon who will pay for a draw at any cost, once the River is a Jack he slips it over to Salomon who would bet all his Jx himself and giving him the opportunity to bluff with any missed flush draws.
Flopped Set Gone Wrong
Flopping a set on such a coordinated board is never an amazing feeling, if the money goes in you can be against better sets, combo draws or straights, however, Bryn isn’t going to just fold the flop against Rick here…
He smooth calls Ricks bet and the Turn card completes flushes and straights with any 6x, however, we just have to hold on here and hope the board pairs.
$900,000 Pot
Rick not playing scared Poker goes for it all on the River with his straight and this doesn’t sit too well with the world’s top winning tournament player Bryn Kenney.
He ends up looking him up and seeing the bad news that the Turn card got him here, we have to think that the two must have some kind of high stakes metagame because calling with a set here is just a complete bluff catcher.
Flopping Quads
This is what 99.6% of equity looks like 4 handed on the Flop, with each other player needing runner, runner quads themselves to beat Steven’s hand here.
As is the custom to do with all the board locked up, he smooth called the flop bet, setting the trap and fired out a bet on the River which sadly for him didn’t get looked up by Dwan with his Ace.
