Sunday
November 22, 2009
Wow. If we thought the poker we had been treated to over the last month had been epic, then we need to pull out the dictionary to find a new word to describe last night’s blood bath. In 4470 hands Isildur1 lost $2.1 million to Patrik Antonius playing PLO and 1.2 million to Phil Ivey at PLO and NLHE. This setback cost Isildur1 most of his winnings from the previous four weeks, and he is now ‘only’ a $750K winner in total.
The action last night was also historical in terms of pot sizes. Five out of the six largest pots in poker history was played during thise sessions, so if we have previously dubbed these stakes as the nose bleeds, last night’s action must have fallen into the zero gravity section. As I mentioned in an earlier report we have been anticipating the first million dollar pot, and as you probably know already, we now have it:
Antonius flops a straight and is able to fade Isildur1’s many straight winners. $1.357 million pot!
It was only fitting that the largest pot in online history basically should come down to a coin-flip. I say fitting because that is what most of these pots seems to come down to. When the hand was over, I am sure Isildur1 felt sick, but there wasn’t so much he could have done to get away from the hand.
Before the flop, a 4-bet with Isildur1’s hand makes a lot of sense. His hand can hit the flop in many ways, and gaining the initiative with a hand like this has many things going for it. Of course, this time he ran into Antonius with an even better hand and was duly 5-bet. But with stacks this deep, being in position and an opponent with a fairly narrow range at this point, the situation is actually quite a good one for Isildur1 even if he is a 3-2 dog at this point.
The flop was as good as could be expected for Isildur1. He has 13 winners that would all give him the nut straight, but more importantly it consists of only low, un-suited cards which is very unlikely to hit an opponent who 5-bet pre flop. So when Isildur1 made the huge raise of Antonius continuation bet, he did so with a legitimate hope of getting his opponent to fold his hand. On this occasion, it was only the inclusion of the lowly three of spades in Antonius hand that put a wrench in Isildur1’s plans. However, this was impossible to read from Isildur1's point of view.
I don’t know how fast Antonius moved in over Isildur1’s raise here, but even with the straight, he wouldn’t have been jumping with joy when he saw his opponent raise him on the flop. If Isildur1 has flopped the higher straight, Antonius would be left with runner runner re-draws, and that is no fun in a pot of this size. And even if he is ahead at this point, he will probably have to fade a lot of outs to win the pot. In the end, considering his fearless opponent, I suppose that he has to move in here, but it he must have done so with a lot of apprehension.
This time, Antonius did have the lead when the money went in, but he was only an 11-9 favorite to have the pot sent his way after the dealer had dealt the river. The five of hearts on the turn was a welcome sight since it killed many of Isildur1 winners, and the nine on the river sealed the deal in favor of Antonius, who could rake the largest pot in history by a $500K margin.
Ivey rivers a flush against Isildur1’s middle set to win a $833K pot.
In my last report I stated that Isildur1 has been running very well against durrrr, but yesterday it seemed that most of that trend had turned. Unfortunately for durrrr, he was not around to take advantage of this, but Phil Ivey certainly was. On this hand, Ivey needed some of that luck to take down the pot, but the line the players took was similar to many other hands we have seen lately. Isildur1 4-bet pre-flop with position and a hand that will hit a set on the flop almost one time out of four, and Ivey was happy to play with a good, double suited hand.
When the flop comes down with a set for Isildur1 and the second nut flush draw and a gut shot straight draw for Ivey, the money is destined to go in, particularly given the size of the pot after the pre flop action. Ivey went for the check raise just to try to force Isildur1 out of the hand, but with what was essentially the nuts at this point (Ivey is very unlikely to have aces since he didn’t 5-bet pre flop), Isildur was happy to move in.
The odds after the flop was 3-2 in favor of Isildur1, which was improved to 3-1 after the turn. However, the king of clubs on the river, made all the previous odds calculations a merely academic exercise as the pot was awarded to Ivey.
Yesterday I argued that durrrr should refrain from taking on Isildur1 again anytime soon, so it seems prudent for me to give a similar ‘advice’ for Isildur1 when it comes to PLO and Patrik Antonius. It seems clear that Isildur1’s best game is NLHE, and even though he might have an excellent potential in PLO as well, I would say that he should probably focus on the other game for now. As for playing Phil Ivey… Well, I can’t really understand why anyone would like to play against Ivey, so my advice there would not be a big secret.
I will leave you with the three other pots from last night that exceeded $800K:
Ivey has the nuts and a flush draw on the turn, but Isildur1 hits a 9-outer to win a $828K pot.
Isildur1 makes a dubious call on the flop, but lucks out to win a $816K pot from Antonius.
Isildur1 can’t fade Antonius’ monster draw. $811K pot.
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