The Nosebleeds at Poker After Dark finally brought back real high stakes cash game action to TV. We are analysing a sick hand, which was also the biggest pot of the week worth a staggering $230,400 between Jake Daniels and Zach Franzi in our Poker Hand of the Week.
Poker Hand of the Week Setup
The last Poker After Dark week was called “The Nosebleeds” and as the name implies it brought real high stakes poker featuring high rollers Daniel Negreanu, Scott Seiver, Jake Daniels, Matt Berkey, Dan Smith, MJ Gonzales and Zach Franzi.
They were playing $200/$400 No-Limit Hold’em with Straddle and Zach Franzi has Jake Daniels slightly covered at the start of our Poker Hand of the Week.
Poker Hand of the Week Action
Preflop:
Daniel Negreanu raises from UTG to $2,500 with K♠Q♠. Jake Daniels calls from the big blind with 2♦2♣ and Zach Franzi defends his straddle with 10♣9♠. Pot Size: $8,100
Flop:
3-way to a flop of J♠9♦9♣, which gives Jack Franzi Trips, while Jake Daniel flops Two Pair and DNegs a gutshot to the Nuts and two overcards.
It checks to Negreanu, who makes a rather smallish continuation bet of $2,200 (27% pot) and both opponents call. Pot Size: $10,200
Turn:
The 2♠ on the turn is an absolute action card as Daniels binks a Full House, DNegs picks up a flush draw to go along his gutshot and Zach still has Trips.
It checks to Franzi, who bets $7,000 into $10,200. Daniel calls and Jake now makes a large 4.1x check-raise to $27,000.
When the action comes back to Franzi he not calls, but comes back over the top with a 3-bet to $64,000, which makes DNegs folds his hand. Not so Jake Daniels, who announces All-In for $104,000 and Zach Franzi calls relatively quickly. Pot Size: $230,400
River:
After Jake Daniels announced that he has a Full House, the two agree to run it four times., since Franzi only has 16% odds to win the pot, which doesn’t happen on any of the four runouts and Jake Daniels wins a massive $230,400 Pot.
Poker Hand of the Week Analysis
Let’s go through this spectacular hand step by step. Daniel’s Preflop raise is standard and so is the call by Jake Daniel. Zach Franzi can both call or fold, but since he has already invested a $800 straddle and gets extremely good pot odds with a 109o, which plays well multi-way, a call is fine.
The flop is an absolute dream for Zach Franzi, since he not only flops Trips, but also his two opponents have something. DNegs makes a cbet after getting checked to and Daniels calls. Zach has two calls in front of him and I would have preferred a check-raise after so much action in front of him to both maximize his value and to protect his hand. Instead he elects to go for a slow play and just calls the small cbet.
Zach gets punished straight away on thee turn, when Jake binks the Two-Outer for a Full House, which is very well disguised. He checks and now Zach leads for $7,000 into $10,200, Negreanu calls and when the action comes back to Daniels, he makes the big check-raise to $29K with the strong hand, which Fransi missed on the flop.
Zach Fransi is in a tough spot, since he is most likely behind against a better Nine such as A9, K9s and almost dead versus Pocket Deuces and Pocket Jacks, although Jacks are very unlikely here. Nevertheless Franzi, without thinking much, comes back over the top and basically commits himself. Jake Daniels now has an easy All-in and Zach has to call being the massive underdog, since he is pot-committed.
They decide to run it four times, but Franzi’s 16% don’t materialize and Jake Daniels wins the biggest pot of the week worth a whopping $230,400.
Poker Hand of the Week Conclusion
We can learn three important things from this hand. Firstly that you should always try to maximise your value and to protect your hand.
Secondly that you should always take your time in big pots, when facing a tough decision, and thirdly that Pocket Pairs on paired boards offer very good implied odds as your hand is very well-disguised, in case the Full House comes in.
Zach Franzi ignored the first two principles and it costed him a massive pot, he could have easily won on the flop.
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