Seeing how the Durrrr Challenge snails itself towards the halfway mark, it was somewhat surprising to see Patrik Antonius and Tom Dwan battling it out at the hold’em tables the previous night. Granted, they didn’t play heads-up, but it would seem like they are not in a hurry to finish their match anytime soon.
Maybe they are bored with the ‘low’ stakes they have chosen for the challenge, because this time $500/$1000 NLHE was on the menu, and it was Antonius who got the best of it in the end. There were a number of interesting hands and we were treated to one of the largest pots we have seen in a while.
Patrik Antonius flops the nuts and gets paid off by Durrrr. $581K pot.
It is hard to comment too much on this hand since we are never shown Durrrr’s hand, but it is clear that it must be very strong. The first thing that springs to mind is that has a smaller flush, and in a way this is what makes the most sense, particularly with his raise on the turn and the subsequent two big calls. I was also considering the possibility that he flopped a set, but with a pair in hand, he might have re-raised before the flop. Also, I am not sure he would have called on the river, though it could be he thuoght there was a decent chance that Antonius was trying to take the pot away from him. It could also be that he held a hand containing a 7, maybe with a high club as the kicker. It would be very interesting to hear your opinion on this, so if you have one, please post it in the forum.
Durrrr’s overpair on the flop nets him a $334K flop.
Despite the poor result, Dwan did not get shut out from winning big pots in this session, and on this hand he got some sort of revenge against Antonius. Before the flop, Antonius makes a steal attempt from the button, while Dwan 3-bets with his queens. Antonius makes what I think is a very marginal call in this spot, but it is one we have seen him make a number of times when he is in position. As I have pointed out before, he will have to make some difficult decisions after the flop when he plays like this, but he obviously has a lot of confidence in his ability to make these. This time, however, he hit top pair on the flop and was not able to get away from the hand.
I may be very conservative, but I think something must have gone very wrong somewhere if you have to put 150 big blinds into the pot with top pair + decent kicker against a player who has 3 bet before the flop and who apparently likes the flop. I actually think that the check raise gave Antonius a chance to get away from the hand on the flop. If Dwan had bet out, Antonius would probably have raised and been more or less pot committed when Dwan moved in over this raise. Now, I think had the very real option of releasing his hand when facing the re-raise. Of course, it is possible that Dwan is making this play with air, but I think there are a lot of indications that Antonius is well and truly beat on this flop. Note that I am not criticising Dwan’s choice of line on this hand. From his point of view, the flop has most likely not hit Antonius, so he wants his opponent to make a steal attempt and only then blow him out of the water.
Patrik Antonius straight beats kingsofcards two pairs. $365K pot.
The last hand I will show this time is another example of how dangerous it can be to call 3-bets with marginal hands, and this time it is kingsofcards who falls victim. After running well for a period, he fell back to earth with a $253K loss, although, at the stakes he is playing this is not a huge swing. The hand in question is interesting for several reason, but the most important decision came when Antonius decided not to make a continuation bet on the flop. I think that 4 times out of 5, he would make a bet in that spot after 3-betting before the flop and hitting the gutshot straight draw and having the over card as backup. This time, however, kingsofcards would probably have made a big raise, forcing Antonius to lay down his hand.
On the turn, Antonius hits his ace and bets out, and it is hard to criticize kingsofcards for calling this bet. He surely suspects that he is beat, but he figures to have as many as 9 winners. It will turn out, however, that some of his winners are very vulnerable indeed. The river hits both players, obviously, but I think that kingsofcards seriously misplays his hand here. Antonius makes a clever choice of checking his straight, representing a hand like AK or AQ, but for kings of cards to be moving in with $131K in a $90K pot does not seem like the logical choice. I find it very hard to believe that Antonius would call with a hand that doesn’t have kingsofcards beat. It is not so unlikely that Antonius turned two pairs for himself and opted to play the hand in exactly the same manner. In that case, he could very easily decide to make the call, hoping that kingsofcards were taking a shot at the pot. Again, I might be too conservative, but I would check behind here because the range of hands which I could beat, and with which Antonius would make a call, is not very large.
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