Friday
January 08, 2010
There is still not huge action going on at the high stakes tables, but it seems that the top players are slowly getting back into the mix. We’ve had sightings of Patrik Antonius, Ziigmund, durrrr, Gus Hansen, Brian Townsend and Cole South, though none of these have had the massive sessions we have gotten used to seeing. However, other players have stepped up and gotten themselves off to a good start on the year. Urindanger is the most notable of these, and over the last four days he has won about $272K.
Urindanger turns the nut straight and gets his opponent to bluff off all his chips. $90K pot.
Urindanger’s result was certainly helped by this hand where he baited his opponent into making a big move at the wrong time. Urindanger flopped a fairly big draw, but decided to play it slow. Since the pot was being played four handed at that point, I am sure he wanted to get a read on the other opponents before he made a huge commitment to the hand. Browndog19 basically had only a gutshot straight draw, but he decided to take a stab at the pot since the board was very dry and it could easily be a spot where none of the others had hit anything.
The six of spades on the turn was obviously a great card for Urindanger, but he also played the hand well. The instinctive reaction would be to make a raise on the turn since he held the nuts, but he apparently knew his opponent well enough to conclude that flat calling was the more profitable line. And after Browndog19’s bluff on the end, Urindanger was proven right.
What can be said about Browndog19’s play on this hand? As I stated before, the bet on the flop can be defended. It is not unlikely that he can pick up the pot by betting here. However, I think he should have given up on the turn. Urindanger is likely to have either a draw or a set for his call on the flop, and if he was on a draw, he the six could easily have been one of the cards that he was looking for. In any case, I feel that Browndog19 is not getting the right odds to make another bluff here.
After the river, I think it becomes more obvious that the bluff is the wrong play. Can you put Urindager on many hands where he would chose to call the flop and turn and then fold the river? Maybe it is possible to find a couple, but Browndog19 needs to make Urindager fold at a 50% rate in this spot, and I am sure that is not happening. But I give Urindanger a lot of credit.He knew his opponent and led him straight into the trap.
Urindager flops the nut straight but Brian Hastings turns a flush and rivers quads to win a $138K pot.
In PLO, the nuts is not always enough to be a favorite after the flop. Sometimes you can even be a significant underdog when you flop the best possible hand. That was the case on this hand where Brian Hastings flopped three of a kind plus a gut shot straight flush draw. Hastings was a 3-2 favorite to win the hand, and with the nuts against such a massive draw, it was not surprising to see both players stick their money in.
What was surprising was to see that Browndog19 also wanted to join the party with the dumb end of the straight. That play is not only surprising, but it is also just plain stupid. After that pre-flop action and with two players moving in before it is his turn, it should take him two nanoseconds to muck his hand. He actually won $33K on 206 hand over the last few days, but if he keeps playing like this, he will go broke very soon.
Anyway, the river sealed the hand in favor of Hastings so the quads on the river was just icing, but it was a fitting end to an exciting hand.
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