We saw an extremely spectacular hand on the latest Poker After Dark episode, where Frank Stepuchin rivered the nut flush and folded against a single raise from Mike Matusow!
Poker Hand of the Week Setup
The latest Poker After Dark week is called “Watch Your Step” and it features action player Frank Stepuchin, Mike Matusow, Landon Tice Marle Cordeiro, Ilyas Abayev, Alex Ding and Ronnie Bardah.
They are playing 7-max NL $50/$100 with a mandatory $200 straddle and Frank Stepuchin has Mike Matusow slightly covered at the start of the hand.
Poker Hand of the Week Action
Preflop:
Marle Cordeiro raises Under The Gun to $300 with A♥8♦, Mike Matusow calls with 7♠7♦ and so does Frank Stepuchin with A♣J♣. Pot Size: $1,050
Flop:
3-way to a flop of 2♠9♣4♣, which hits Stepuchin hart with the nut flush draw and two overcards, while Matusow flops middle pair.
Frank and Marle check over to Mike, who bets $600 into $1,050, Frank just calls and Marle folds. Pot Size: $2,250
Turn:
The 9 on the turn is a pretty good card for Matusow as it makes it much more likely that his Pocket Sevens are the best hand.
Mike fires a pretty small second barrel by betting $1,000 into $2,250 (44% pot) and Frank check-calls again. Pot Size: $4,250
River:
The 7♣ is the absolute action card as it not only makes Matusow a Full House, but also completes Stepuchin’s nut flush.
Frank now leads with what he calls “Michael Jordan,” which is $2,300 due to Jordan’s number 23 and to his surprise Matusow quickly raises to $8,300 having only $7,000 behind.
Frank Stepuchin goes through the hand one more time analysing loudly every street and after almost 1.5 minutes open-folds his hand!
Mike Matusow shows him the Full House and collects a $14,850 pot.
Poker Hand of the Week Analysis
What a fold and amazing read by Frank Stepuchin! Let’s take an in-depth look what brought him to this excellent decision.
Marle’s Under The Gun raise with A8o is questionable and a bit on the loose side, but since a UTG raise signifies a lot of strength both Mike Matusow and Frank Stepuchin just call.
While Mike’s call is more standard, I would have preferred a 3-bet from Stepuchin since it is a nice squeezing opportunity and he has to play the rest of the hand out of position, which is always tricky, so better try to take the dead money and pot down right here, but he just calls.
The flop hits Frank very hard with the nut flush draw and two overcards and although Matusow has middle pair he is a 55% favourite. He checks and Matusow bets 57% pot.
This actually is a perfect spot for a check-raise as Frank might win the hand right here and if not he still has a lot of equity. Just calling after this dream flop is in my opinion too passive, but that’s what he does.
The 9 on the turn is a pretty good card for Matusow as it makes it much less likely that Stepuchin has a Nine and much more likely that he has the best hand and he correctly fires a second barrel.
On the turn I like calling much more now, since the board has paired and you could be potentially dead against 44 or 22, so you need to proceed with caution.
The 7 on the river is the absolute money card for Mike Matusow, since he improves to a Full House, while Frank Stepuchin now has the nut flush.
Stepuchin now leads half pot and Matusow quickly makes a large 3.6x raise. If you get raised on the river on a paired board your alarm bells should go on and that’s what exactly what happens.
Stepuchin almost immediately said: “I’m going to do what I didn’t do yesterday” and Matusow asked “What’s that, fold?”
Yes, Frank instinctively knows that he is most likely beat here against such a tight opponent like Matusow. He goes through the hand one more time to validate his read and then makes an amazing fold.
Poker Hand of the Week Conclusion
This hand is a perfect example, why you need to play the player and trusts your reads in live cash games.
Stepuchin knows that Mike Matusow plays extremely tight, if not too say nitty, in high stakes cash games. When a nitty opponent like Matusow bets every street and then raises you on the river, he is very high up in his range, and most likely has a Full House.
Mike could have a lower flush, but the type of careful player he is, he probably would have just called instead of raising, when the board paired on the river.
Credit to Frank Stepuchin for folding the nut flush to a single raise on the river here. Frank clearly showed during the entire “Watch Your Step” Week that he is a great live cash game player, who is able to make fantastic reads and laydowns.
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