In our Poker Hand of the Week we analyse one of the best calls of 2021 by Brock Wilson vs. Elio Fox with just Ace-high!
Poker Hand of the Week Setup
This hand was played at the $10,000 No-Limit Texas Hold’em Poker Masters Event #4 final table, which featured the latter winner Brock Wilson, Nick Petrangelo, Sam Soverel, Chad Eveslage, Brekstyn Schutten and Elio Fox.
There are five players left and Elio Fox has Brock Wilson clearly covered at the start of our Poker Hand of the Week.
Poker Hand of the Week Action
Preflop:
With blinds of 25,000/50,000 and a big blind Ante of 50,000 Brock Wilson raises from UTG+1 holding A♣10♦ to 100,000. Elio Fox calls with K♣10♣ from the button and everybody else folds. Pot Size: 325,000
Flop:
Heads-up to the flop of 3♦9♥7♣. Both players whiff, which means Ace-high is still the best hand, but Fox has at least a backdoor flush draw.
Being the preflop aggressor, Wilson surprisingly doesn’t make a continuation bet and instead checks over to Fox, who checks behind. Pot Size: 325,000
Turn:
The 2♠ on the turn is as blank as it gets. Consequently, Brock checks for a second time and Elio again doesn’t use the chance to take a stab at it and so it goes check-check. Pot Size: 325,000.
River:
On the 8♦ river, Brock Wilson checks for a third time. Elio Fox has King-high and knows he can only win the hand by betting. This is what he does and he decides to go big with an almost pot size bet of 300,000.
Wilson really takes his time and goes through the whole hand. After more than 80 seconds in the tank he says: “Call” and what a call it is as Ace-high is good! Brock collects a well-deserved 925,000 Pot.
Poker Hand of the Week Analysis
Let’s go through this spectacular hand step by step. Given that play is 5-handed, Wilson’s preflop raise with ATo is standard as it the call by Elio Fox on the button with KTs.
First surprise in the hand is that Brock doesn’t make a continuation bet on this dry flop. Probably because he correctly thinks that it favours Fox’s calling range a lot or because he simply wants to control the size of the pot. In Elio’s shoes, I would have taken a small stab of 1/4 to 1/3 pot here in order to win the hand right here, when being checked to.
This changes on the river, when Brock Wilson checks for a third time. For two reasons: First and foremost, a bet simply doesn’t make sense here after having checked behind twice and secondly Brock could have some Showdown Value with middle sized pairs such as 44-66.
Elio decides to go for it though and he polarizes his hand with a pot size bet. After taking a lot of time to go through the hand, brock Wilson comes to the conclusion that Fox’s story doesn’t make any sense and he therefore correctly identifies that Ace-high is good here.
Poker Hand of the Week Conclusion
This call by Brock Wilson looks absolutely phenomenal at first glance, but when you thoroughly analyse the hand, then you realize that it actually isn’t that big of a Hero Call as Elio Fox’s story just doesn’t check out.
Elio had the chance to bet both on the flop and the turn, when being checked to, but checking behind twice takes every small bit of credibility away from his river bet.
Checking behind twice and then suddenly betting out of the blue on the river after two blanks had appeared, doesn’t make any sense and if a story at a poker table doesn’t make sense, then it is in most cases a bluff.
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Watch the Poker Hand of the Week here from 2:58 on:
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