Poker Hand of the Week Setup
An absolute insane hand happened at the $500/$1,000/$2,000 high stakes tables at GG Network, where Wiktor Malinowski scooped a massive $500,146.42 Pot with 72s against Canadian high stakes cash game regular Christopher Brewer.
We already reported that GG Network is the new home of high stakes poker and that the incredible action there with records pots close to a Million Dollar reminds a lot to the Golden Age of high stakes poker at Full Tilt featuring the likes of Viktor “Isildur1” Blom, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius.
The player, who clearly drives the action, is Polish online crusher Wiktor “limitless” Malinowski. Many experts already consider Malinowski to be the new “Isildur1” as he creates massive pots.
The game in play is 6-max NL$500/$1,000/$2,000 and the effective stack sizes at the beginning of the hand are 250 big blinds.
Poker Hand of the Week Action
Preflop Action:
The action folds around to Christopher Brewer, who finds A♠T♥ in the small blind and makes it $7,000 to go.
Wiktor Malinowski looks at 7♥2♥ in the big blind and decides to make a play in position by 3-betting to $22,040 probably with the intention to take the pot down right here.
Ali Imsirovic folds his straddle and when the action comes back to Brewer, he decides to 4-bet to $56,000, but instead of folding Wiktor Malinowski decides to peel and see a flop. And just like that there are already a whopping $115,200 in the middle before the flop is even dealt! Pot size: $115,200
Flop:
The flop A♦Q♣3♣ is pretty decent for Christopher Brewer, while Wiktor wiffs completely. Brewer decides to go for a very small continuation bet of only a quarter pot.
Most players would fold in Malinowski’s spot, but he seemed to didn’t have called the 4-bet pre without a plan and to just give up on the flop, so he calls. Pot Size: $172,800
Turn:
The 5♥ on the turn doesn’t changes a lot, except for the fact that Malinoswki picked up a gutshot straight draw and for the first time in the hand actually has some equity.
However, his odds of winning the hand on the turn are only 9.09%, but that seems enough for Wiktor to take over the initiative by leading very small with $33,340 into $172,800. Brewer just calls and we go to the river. Pot Size: $239,480
River:
Malinowski hits one of his four outs on the 4♥ river and binks it. As the pot has already ballooned up to $239,480 and Wiktor only having 54% pot behind, he has an easy shove now and that’s what he does.
A very nasty spot for Christopher Brewer, especially since the flush draw busted and he is getting great pot odds of almost 3 to 1 on a call. After going into the tank he calls just to be shown the cheeky 72 by Wiktor Malinowski. Pot Size: $500,146.42
Poker Hand of the Week Analysis
What an incredible and controversial hand! It will split opinions completely into two camps, while the one side goes this is terrible and degenerate gambling, the other site will say boss play, no one else has such balls.
Well, the answer as always lies somewhere in the middle. While calling a 4-bet pre with 72s is definitely a bad and losing play in the long run and I would have folded preflop, the situation looks a little bit different on the turn.
In between lies the flop though and here it becomes evident that Wiktor Malinowski had the plan to float the flop after calling the 4-bet preflop and take the pot away on a latter street. Being in position is a huge advantage heads-up and he tries to exploit it to a maximum.
This is the first reason, why he calls on the flop, the second one is that Chris Brewer’s cbet of only a quarter pot is simply too small and opens up the door for a float. Would he have bet 50% or more, then I don’t think that Malinowski would have called.
On the turn Wiktor picks up 4 outs and therefore some equity. Taking over the betting lead and potentially winning the pot with a small bet or setting up a river shove is not a bad play at all.
When Malinowski hit gin on the river with only a little bit more than half pot behind a shove is the only option and that is what he does.
Very nasty spot for Christopher Brewer, who now gets very good pot odds of almost 3 to 1. Furthermore, the obvious flush draw missed and there is no chance in hell that Brewer can put Malinowski on a Deuce after he has called his 4-bet pre.
Given the great pot odds and the way the hand played out Brewer should call here as he did just to get shown the bad news.
Poker Hand of the Week Conclusion
72s against a 4-bet preflop is a clear fold, there is no doubt about that. For me the hand would have been already over at this point.
When you call here and face such a small bet on the flop, where I still would have folded though, a very aggressive player such as “limitless” might make a play at the pot and that’s exactly what happened here.
The fact that he on top of this hits his gutshot on the river in a 500k pot is simply bad luck for Brewer, who didn’t make any mistake in the hand.
Although this hand seems to be completely nuts and like a terrible play by Malinowski at first glance, genius and insanity are frequently not far apart from each other. So it might be hands and having guts like this that make the difference between an average player and a high stakes crusher such as Wiktor “limitless” Malinowski.
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