Thursday
December 31, 2009
While the regular headliners were having a relatively quiet day yesterday, Richard Ashby took the opportunity to end the year on a high note. Playing over 2100 hands in the 7-game and close to 500 hands of PLO he won almost $260K. Brian Hastings also had a very nice session, adding $208K to his bankroll.
PixKim flops top set only to see that Richard Ashby has flopped the nut straight. $85K pot.
Well, sometimes a hand needs no comment, and this is certainly one of those. It was the largest pot of the day for Ashby and a real cooler for PixKim. I am not entirely sure why Ashby decided slow play on the flop, since the board is quite scary and there is a risk that the turn card could cost him action. The only thing I can think of is that he is almost certain that his opponent needs to have AA or KK for his preflop 3-bet, and Ashby just wants to make sure that the board doesn’t pair up before committing all his chips.
Brian Townsend flops top set, but rospodin turns a straight and rivers the nut flush to win a $59K pot.
This was the days largest pot in terms of big blinds, and it is not often we see such amounts in play in the $50/100 pot. Not surprisingly we saw two big hands on the flop with Townsendæs set of queens against rospodin’s nut flush and straight draw.
What was a little bit surprising was that there wasn’t more money going in on the flop. The reason for this is probably that the stacks are so deep that a raise on the flop will not have much fold equity for rospodin. If he misses theturn and tries a move at that point, it might prove more effective. This time, rospodin hit the straight on the turn and could make the raise with a good conscience.
Townsend probably knew that his set was in trouble at that point, but he had ten winners to improve, and he also had a trick up his sleeve. When the third diamond hit on the river, he could bet out in front trying to represent the flush. I think it is a good play for several reasons. He only needs to be successful 40% of the time for the bluff to be profitable and having a flush draw is quite consistent with the way he played the hand. It will not be easy for rospodin to make the call if he doesn’t have a flush himself. This time, of course, rospodin held the nuts and was only too happy to call, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that Townsend made a nice play.
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