In our Poker Hand of the Week we analyze a good bluff gone wrong due to bad timing by Farah Galfond vs. Rob Yong on High Stakes Poker.
Poker Hand of the Week Setup
This big bluff was played in High Stakes Poker Season 11 Episode 9, which featured Jason Koon, Matt Berkey, Jennifer Tilly, Rob Yong and Faran Galfond.
They are playing 7-max $200/$400 No-Limit Hold’em and Rob Yong has Farah Galfond easily covered.
Poker Hand of the Week Action
Preflop:
There is a straddle to $800. Farah Galfond raises UTG to $3,500 with A♣Q♥ and Rob Yong 3-bets right behind her to $15,000 with A♥8♥. Farah calls and everybody else folds. Pot Size: $31,900
Flop:
Heads-up to a very interesting flop of K♥9♥10♣, which gives Yong the Nut Flush Draw and Galfond a gutshot to the Nut Straight and her Ace-Queen high is still the best hand.
Percentage-wise this is a coin flip. Galfond check-calls Rob’s $15,000 continuation bet and we go to the turn. Pot Size: $61,900
Turn:
The 8♠ on the turn is a really good card for Rob Yong as it gives him the lead. Since he has a pair and showdown value now, Yong checks behind. Pot Size: $61,900
River:
The 6♥ on the river brings not only the frontdoor flush draw, but also a one-card straight.
Many strong hands are possible now and Galfond decides to pull the trigger by shoving All-in. Just bad luck that Rob has the Nuts and Yong wins a huge $204,100 pot.
Poker Hand of the Week Analysis
Very interesting spot. Let’s take an in-depth look at this spectacular hand.
Farah’s UTG raise with AcQs is standard. Not so standard is Rob’s isolation raise from UTG+1 with Ah8h. Not a bad idea though, since he puts a lot of pressure on newcomer Galfond and at the same time plays the hand heads-up in position with a Suited Ace.
The Kh9h10c flop is very good for Yong as it gives him the Nut Flush Draw. However, Galfond also has a piece with the gutshot to the Nuts.
When taking a look at the percentages, we see that this is basically a coin flip on the flop with Galfond even being a small 53% favourite:
However, this changes big time on the 8s turn as the pair gives Rob a significant 86% lead. Farah checks over to him once again and he now understandably checks behind having picked up showdown value.
The 6h on the river is the absolute action card as it completes both the flush draw and a one-card straight.
By checking-check-calling all the way to the river, Farah Galfond played like she would with a flush draw, so she can credibly represent it.
That’s what she does and it’s just bad luck that Rob Yong is the one having the flush as she would have made a lot of other hands fold.
Poker Hand of the Week Conclusion
The question here is: Was this a bad bluff by Farah Galfond. And the answer is no, it was bad timing.
As mentioned above, Farah played the hand as being on a draw and when all of them come in on the river, she decides to go for it.
I like the bluff by Galfond, since she has significantly more draws in her range and can get a lot of better hands to fold.
Watch the Poker Hand of the Week here:
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