Our Poker Hand of the Week is a very exciting confrontation between high stakes players Matt Berkey and Daniel Negreanu. The latter floats twice on flop and turn and then goes for the big bluff on the river with Ten-high in a $74,000 pot! Let’s take an in-depth look at this spectacular hand.
Poker Hand of the Week Setup
The latest Poker After Dark week is called “The Nosebleeds” and features Daniel Negreanu, Scott Seiver, Jake Daniels, Matt Berkey, Dan Smith, MJ Gonzales and Zach Franzi.
As the name nosebleeds implies, it is real high stakes cash game action with the above playing $200/$400 No-Limit Hold’em.
Daniel Negreanu has Matt Berkey clearly covered at the start of our Poker Hand of the Week.
Poker Hand of the Week Action
Preflop:
It folds to Daniel Negreanu on the button, who makes it $1,000 to go with 10♠6♠ and both Matt Berkey holding Q♠10♣ and Dan Smith with 8♣3♣ call from the blinds. Pot Size: $3,400
Flop:
3-way to a flop of 8♦2♠9♥, which gives both DNegs and Matt Berkey a gut shot, while Dan Smith flops middle pair.
Matt and Dan check to the preflop aggressor and Daniel chooses a rather large cbet sizing of $2,200 (65% pot). Berkey now makes an interesting 3x check-raise to $6,500. Dan quickly calls, but Negreanu decides to stick around with his gutshot and backdoor flush draw. Pot Size: $16,400
Turn:
The 5♠ on the turn is a very interesting card as it brings Daniel not only the flush draw, but also a double gutter increasing his odds of winning the hand from 27% to 32%
Matt bets $10,000 into $16,400 and Daniel calls relatively quickly. Pot Size: $36,400
River:
The A♥ on the river is another interesting card as it certainly is part of the range of the preflop aggressor. Berkey’s draws all busted and he only has Queen-high, but he decides to check.
Negreanu must bet if he wants to win the hand and bet is what he does. DNegs goes All-in and after a few seconds Berkey mucks his hand. Daniel Negreanu wins a huge $74,000 pot with Ten-high!
Poker Hand of the Week Analysis
Preflop DNegs makes a lose raise with 106s intended to steal the blinds. Matt has a standard call with Q10o and for Dan Smith it makes sense to see a flop as well with 83s, since he is getting very good pot odds.
Having flopped a gutshot and both opponents checking to him on the flop a continuation bet is in place to take down the pot right here. However, Matt Berkey makes a nice check-raise with the gutshot to the Nuts and two overcards. Nice play by Berkey, which looks super strong and even if he gets called, he still has decent equity. Dan Smith understandably folds what is the best hand after this heavy action.
The turn is one of the best cards in the deck for Daniel, since it makes him a combo draw and therefore a must call after Matt fires a second barrel.
The Ace on the river is a scare card for Matt Berkey as it is part of Negreanu’s range. However, Berkey only has Queen-high and having already raised on the flop and bet the turn, you should go for a Triple Barrel Bluff here, but Matt checks and opens the door for Daniel to steal the pot.
Daniel Negreanu only has Ten-high and no chance but to bet if he wants to win the pot. DNegs applies maximum pressure by putting Matt All-In and Berkey folds relatively quickly, although he says afterwards “I almost called you with Queen-high” with Daniel replying “It was good, yeah”, while laughing.
Poker Hand of the Week Conclusion
This hand shows one of the most frequent and costly mistakes poker players make. Namely, if you have already bet on the flop and turn and then miss your draw on the river, you need to fire a third barrel.
Reason for this being firstly that you already invested a sizeable part of your stack, secondly that you open the door for your opponent to steal the pot by checking the river and thirdly that you almost never win a showdown with Queen-high.
Would have Matt Berkey followed through and told his story until the end, he would have won a huge pot, which he now lost.
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