Poker Hand of the Week Setup
We are once again at the $25/$50/$50 Live at the Bike high stakes cash game featuring Garrett Adelstein and several other LATB regs.
All players have a lot of history as they are playing often with each other in this format. This means they know their opponents’ game very well and have some reads on them.
Both players are super deep with effective stacks of more than 500 big blinds.
Poker Hand of the Week Action
Preflop Action:
Garrett opens from UTG+1 with K♥J♠ to $300 and gets four callers. One of them is Ju, who holds A♠9♣. Pot Size: $1,800
Flop:
The flop 9♠K♠Q♠ all spades is spicy as the board texture is very dynamic and heaps of string draws or made hands are possible. In addition to that, it is a really good flop for Garrett, who has top pair, the second nut flush draw and a gutshot straight draw.
However, he is not the only one who really likes his hand as Ju has flopped the nut flush draw, bottom pair and has an overcard to the board.
Regarding the odds on the flop, this is basically a coin flip, but to be exact Adelstein is a slight favorite with 56%. He goes for a very small sizing of large $400 into $1,800 to possibly induce.
Ju has two options here: He can call or he could check-raise as a semi-bluff, since he has a lot of equity with the nut flush draw plus the two pair and trips draw. He decides to check-call and we go to the turn. Pot size: $2,600
Turn:
The turn 4♦ is a blank. Ju checks a second time to Garrett, who fires a big second barrel of $1,500 into $2,600.
Instead of check-calling again, Ju now makes a check-raise to $4,000. I really like this play as this looks insanely strong and he can make a lot of better hands fold. Furthermore, he has several back door draws, which can make him a very strong hand.
In this case, Gman’s hand is simply too strong though and he consequently calls. Pot Size: $10,600
River:
The river A♦ is a great card for Ju and a pretty nasty one for Garrett as the two pair is pretty disguised. Ju now leads for $6,000 putting Garrett into the tank.
Adelstein says to Ju “I have one pair” probably to get a read, but no reaction. After thinking for almost two and a half minutes Garrett flicks in the call just to see the bad news and a nice $22,600 pot goes to Ju.
Poker Hand of the Week Analysis
A very interesting hand, which raises the question should Garrett fold on the river after the Ace hits?
Let’s go through the hand street by street to come up with the answer. Preflop and flop are both standard and there is not much more to say about it.
The decisive moment is on the turn, when Ju makes a bold play by surprisingly check-raising, which shows a lot of strength. He is representing a very strong range here consisting of either flushes or the nut flush draw.
When the Ace comes on the river, Adelstein should know that he is very likely behind as the Jus range consists of flopped flushes and the nut flush draw, which has now made top pair.
As Garrett can’t beat this range and now is even behind against the most likely bluff/semi-bluff with the nut flush draw, this is as played a fold on the river.
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