Daniel Negreanu continues to impress in High Stakes Poker Season 9. In our Poker Hand of the Week, he traps live cash game god Garrett Adelstein with a sneaky Double Check Back in a massive $440,500 Pot!
Poker Hand of the Week Setup
Our Poker Hand of the Week comes from the latest action-packed episode of High Stakes Poker Season 9, which features poker superstars Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, Bryn Kenney and Garrett Adelstein.
In our Poker Hand of the Week, the two biggest winners of High Stakes Poker Season 9 clash in the biggest pot, we have seen so far.
The blinds are NL$500/$1,000 with the effective stack size being 219 big blinds. Garrett has Daniel Negreanu easily covered at the start of the hand.
Poker Hand of the Week Action
Preflop:
Garrett raises from the hijack to $3,000 with A♣7♣ and DNegs makes it $10,000 to go right behind him with 10♥10♦, everybody else folds.
When the action comes back to Gman, he comes back over the top to $40,000. Daniel thinks for a few seconds and then verbally declares “Call”. Pot Size: $82,500
Flop:
Heads-up to a flop of 3♦5♦5♠, which is very dry. Nevertheless, Adelstein doesn’t go for a continuation bet and DNegs checks behind with his overpair. Pot Size: $82,500
Turn:
Another 5♣ on the turn and Garrett checks for a second time, while Negreanu goes for the double check back. Pot Size: $82,500
River:
The 6♠ on the river is more or less a blank in this spot. Adelstein knows he can only win the pot by betting and he goes for all of it by announcing All-In.
Garrett knows that Daniel observes his opponents precisely and hopes Daniel picked up on that. However, his story doesn’t make any sense as he was checking on the flop and turn, although having 4-bet preflop.
Daniel Negreanu seemed to have picked up on that as well as he calls All-In relatively quickly. Garrett mumbles a frustrated “You win” and DNegs wins the largest pot of High Stakes Poker Season 9 worth a staggering $440,500.
Poker Hand of the Week Analysis
Very interesting hand from a Metagame perspective, so let’s go through it step by step.
Garrett’s preflop raise with a suited Ace from the hijack as well as Negreanu’s 3-bet from the cut-off are both standard. What is not standard is the 4-bet by Adelstein. You would rather expect a call.
However, if there is a great candidate for 3-bet bluffing from all positions, then it is a suited Ace-rag. This is because it has high equity and equity realization (due to being able to flop flushes or nut flush draws) plus the Ace is the best blocker against the villain’s range, means Garrett’s 4-bet is absolutely fine. Daniel calls.
But then he makes a mistake on the flop by checking as preflop aggressor on a very dry board. If Garrett would have an overpair, which is what he represented preflop, this is an ideal flop for a continuation bet. Daniel checks behind to control the size of the pot, in case Adelstein is trapping.
Followed by a second mistake on the turn, when Adelstein checks again. If he really would have a hand such as Aces or Kings here, then he would have to bet in order to build the pots as there is a decent chance that Daniel also has an overpair and now has turned a full house. DNegs deouble check back for a serves two purposes: Play pot control and induce a bluff on the river.
After the blank on the river, Garrett knows that is Ace-high isn’t good as Daniel called a $40,000 4-bet preflop, so he has to bet, if he wants to win the hand.
He decides to go for it and chooses the same sizing he did when he had the goods, which is a big overbet. Daniel Negreanu doesn’t buy it and calls pretty quickly to win the largest pot of High Stakes Poker Season 9 so far worth a whopping $450,500.
Poker Hand of the Week Conclusion
This hand perfectly demonstrates the beauty of checking back. You can check back for many reasons such as to control the size of the pot, to not get trapped if you are unsure about the strength of your opponent’s hand or to induce a bluff.
Disguising his bluff as a big overbet, which he made twice before when he had the goods, is not a bad idea by Garrett. However, this time the situation is different since he has been checking the flop and turn instead of betting small like before.
His story therefore doesn’t checks out any longer and Daniel is able to quickly put the pieces of the puzzle together resulting in a good call.
On a side note, when your opponent is the preflop aggressor and then checks both the flop and turn and suddenly bets on the river it is in most cases a bluff.
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