Sunday
March 07, 2010
Taking down the large pots is no guarantee for overall success in poker, and yesterday we saw just that. Patrik Antonius won four of the five largest pots of the day but still ended the day a marginal loser. There has been a lot of action all around over the last 24 hours with durrrr's massive win and Gus Hansen and Isildur1 both having great days. With all those winnings there had to be some losers too. There were 10 players with six-figure losses, something that might be a new record, and the one who tanked the worst, PixKim managed to lose almost a million dollars.
Durrrr wins a 3-way pot, all in before the flop by hitting a set on the river. $423K pot.
This is the largest pot we have seen in a while, and with two players holding aces it was not surprising to see all the money go in pre-flop. Antonius, with his double-suited kings went along for the ride. Before the flop, the equity of the players are fairly even. Durrrr’s was about 40% while the two others had 30% each.
The flop was very good for Antonius who flopped a flush draw, but that was the end of the good news for him. When the board paired on the turn, there was a 75% chance that the hand would end up being split between PixKim and durrrr, but all of that was rendered academic when durrrr spiked one of only two cards on the river that would allow him to scoop the pot. Very bitter for the two other players, but all the more sweet for durrrr who made almost a third of his winnings for the day in this one hand.
Antonius’ hits a runner-runner flush to win a $257K pot
It was not all bad luck for Antonius on this day. Here he flopped a 17 wrap straight draw, but presumably because of the flush draw on the board, he did not want to commit all the way with his hand on the flop. When he also picked up the flush draw on the turn, he could be forgiven to move in at that point, but since he only had an extra $61K behind and therefore hardly any fold equity, he opted not to. His hand has absolutely no showdown value if it doesn’t improve, so why not wait and see what peels off on the river.
The heart on the end presented PixKim with a dilemma. Since it was a backdoor draw, chances are that Antonius did not hit a flush, but on the other hand, PixKim’s hand is not all that strong either. I believe that he bet out because he suspected he could get called by a bare ace or a worse two pair hand. PixKim would probably play the hand the same way if he was on a busted draw, so betting his two pairs for value makes a lot of sense. Check-folding is not an option, so on thishand it wouldn’t have mattered which line he chose, but in the long run it seems to me that betting is the best play.
Antonius catches Ziigmund bluffing. $239K pot
Antonius turns a full house and traps PixKim. $228K pot.
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