Lucky River for LeForbes

Schwimer flopped trip 8s in this pot against LeForbes who was never going to lay down his pocket pair on this run out.

An ugly River for Schwimer meant he lost the pot to a full house, however, he could have managed a little more damage control with his three 8’s here because any combination of a 6 in LeForbes hand meant he would have a straight now.

Tough Run Out for Tom

As this hand was beginning Schwimer claimed, “Tom’s the only guy I can beat” and it certainly looked true when he flopped top pair and had Tom firing out a large C-Bet into him…Tom picked up some more equity to go with his gutshot on the Turn when he turned a pair of Aces… both slowed down though, with any 3 making a straight and Schwimer with way more of these in his calling range rather than in Tom’s range.

Things got a little weird on the River, Tom block bet with $25k and Schwimer gave a speech and proceeded to move all-in, then stating “phewww no snap call, I’m good”

Tom must have thought Schwimer could do this without a really strong hand here because he ended up looking him up and seeing the bad news that Schwimer went for some thin value on the end.

Three-Pair Good

Schwimer was involved in another interesting pot here, where he got isolated pre-flop by Andress to his left and called two bets on the Flop and Turn, only to have his pocket pair counterfitted by the board…He gave out a large sigh and made it pretty clear he hated that card, Andress though, not sure whether that reaction was truthful shut down his bluff and chopped the pot as both players now played the board.

One thing that is worth noting from this pot is typically people will play the opposite role, look weak when they are strong and vice versa, however, what can happen with new players to the game is that they are still on level one of this behaviour meta game and they will be pretty open with their emotions.

In a later pot Schwimer even cockily tells his opponent he is no good, displaying huge signs of strength when he had the goods. If you pick up on this at the poker table, keep it to yourself and use that information to your advantage.

Bellande with his Questionable 4-Bets

Jean Robert is well known for punting off huge stacks, this pot was a little different as he had a good deal or equity at least, but his top pair was no match for Perry’s pocket Aces…
Perry played the pot pretty perfectly, stringing Bellande along the whole way and giving him a good price. He probably hoped due to his 4-Bet Bellande had a hand like JJ–KK… if he knew that he Turned an open ender I have a feeling he would have bet a much larger sizing.

He left a bet of $136k for the River and Bellande getting a great price and massively stuck made the call and saw the bad news.

I have trips, I raise

Another thing that amateur players will do is fast play strong hands in a way that no good player would ever do… and boy is it confusing!

Andress got all out of shape straight out of the gate on this one, betting to protect his pocket Jacks on what looked to be a pretty safe board, only to get insta-check-raised by Schwimer.

He had the goods and got called on blank Turn and River cards by Andress who said out loud that he just can’t fold.

Kenney Comes in Hot

Dream run out for Perry, with as he put it, people just giving him chips…

Bryn Kenney came in raring to play and this pot proved that, he wasted no time in firing off all 3 streets with just 9 high here to the delight of his opponent who flopped trips and Turned the Nut full house.

It’s an important energy to pick up on when someone clearly wants to get aggressive and blast off their money, just sit back, do your best not to look to strong and let them fire some chips your way.

Merged the whole way

Kenney played a pot against Dwan with Doyle Brunson’s hand 10 2… his approach to this pot was a little strange.

He bet all three streets with a merged range, meaning he didn’t have a great hand, but wasn’t bluffing either.
Why did he do this though, what hand could he get called by that would be no good?!

I don’t have the answer to this one, if he thought his hand was good on the River he must be putting Tom on hands that missed like 89 or QJ of clubs and spades, but why not check and let these hands bluff?! The only possible hands he could be targeting for value are 99, 88 and A5.

But I am not the one to judge, Kenney has won over $50Million in tournaments, so I’m assuming he is a level above any thought process I have.

Top Pair Gets Schwimer Deep in Hot Water

This proved to be the second-biggest pot of the night, Schwimer made a whole bunch of clear errors in this hand.

Firstly he led out on the Flop, bloating the size of the pot with a marginal holding. This is always something we shouldn’t do, when we have these kinds of hands we want to look to show them down, not blow the pot up.

Secondly, he continued on the worse Turn card for his hand, with the only overcard in the deck hitting that also completed the open-ended straight draw on the Flop, just in case Kenney was bluffing with that.

Thirdly, Snap calling the River with a weak two pair… this is a classic mistake that new players will make, “well I made two pair, so I couldn’t fold” This hand is still just a complete bluff catcher. The only bluffs we now beat are spade flush draws that raised the Flop huge and didn’t take a free card on the Turn and the chances of Kenney playing a flush draw this way are pretty slim.