Jennifer Tilly continues to hold her own in High Stakes Poker Season 9. In our Poker Hand of the Week, we analyze the sneaky river check vs. Garrett Adelstein that secured her the biggest pot so far worth a whopping $519,500.
Poker Hand of the Week Setup
Our Poker Hand of the Week was played in the brand-new episode of High Stakes Poker Season 9, which features poker superstars Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Jennifer Tilly, JRB, Bryn Kenney and Garrett Adelstein.
The blinds are NL$500/$1,000 and both opponents are very deep with the effective stack size being 324 big blinds. Garrett has Jennifer covered.
Poker Hand of the Week Action
Preflop:
Jennifer makes a loose raise to $3,000 from the cut-off with 
and gets three callers with Garrett Adelstein 
on the button as well as Daniel Negreanu 
and Tom Dwan 
in the blinds. Pot Size: $13,000
Flop:
4-handed to the flop of 
, which is a very wet board structure and does indeed hit everyone. It checks to Jennifer, who makes a $10,000 continuation bet with her combo draw. Garrett has flopped Top Two and makes it $30,000 to go. DNegs and “durrrr”fold.
It is worth taking a look at the odds here, which show that Top Two Pair vs. a flush and open-ended straight draw is a coin flip.
Jen has two options here: She can call or raise, as her monster draw has plenty of equity against almost every hand. However, Garrett has her covered and they are both very deep, so she decides to call. Pot Size: $73,000
Turn:
Tilly checks in the dark and the 
on the turn doesn’t help anybody. Garrett decides that $55,000 (75% pot) is a good sizing for his second barrel and Jennifer check-calls. Pot Size: $183,000
River:
The 
on the river gives Jennifer Tilly the flush, but she checks! Even though the front door flush came in, Garrett bets $100,000, just to get check-raised All-In for $236,000.
It is only $136,000 to call in order to win $519,500 giving Adelstein pot odds of 4.8 to 1. However, after tanking for a few seconds he realizes that he can’t beat anything and folds.
A cheeky river check secures Jennifer Tilly the biggest pot of High Stakes Poker Season 9 so far worth a staggering $519,500!
Poker Hand of the Week Analysis
Let’s go to this very interesting hand street by street.
Jennifer makes a loose raise from the cut-off with Q5s and Garrett and even looser call on the button with 87o, which shows that he perceives Tilly for one of the weaker players at the table and believes that he can outplay her in position postflop.
The dealer then lays the absolute action flop into the middle, which has something for everyone. Jen makes a relatively big cbet with her monster draw and Garrett has to raise on this very draw-heavy board with Top Two Pair in order to protect his hand from being outdrawn. That’s what he does and now it’s back on Tilly, who can both call or raise and she goes for the first option.
Jennifer Tilly then checks in the dark before the turn is dealt. The Jh doesn’t changes much and Garrett correctly sizes his second barrel up to 75% pot. Jen again has two options here: Call or check-raise All-In. She once again chooses the more conservative route and calls.
The river is a club and makes Tilly the flush and this is where the hand gets interesting! Jennifer decides to not go for value and check with the flush instead.
This play has its pros and cons, since you either risk missing value in case your opponent checks behind or you can induce a bet/bluff by simulating weakness.
For Garrett this is a pretty clear check behind in my opinion. The front door flush came in and Jen played the hand very much like a flush draw.
Adelstein has to ask himself what worth hand he gets called with here and there are not many, since even most overpairs are a fold as played.
The only reasonable combos that might call are one combo of Pocket Nines, since both Ivey and Dwan folded a Nine, AcJc and Ah8h. Those are only three combos, while all other hands that call a river bet such as flushes, straights and sets have him beat.
However, Garrett surprisingly decides to go for value by betting $100,000 just to get check-raised All-In almost instantaneously. Please note that this line from Jennifer Tilly indicates extreme strength and almost never is a bluff.
Now Garrett is in a dilemma as he gets very favourable pot odds of 4 to 1, but can’t beat any value hand and therefore still ends up folding.
Poker Hand of the Week Conclusion
This hand is a great example, why check-raising is a must-have tool for every poker player. It can maximize your value in two different ways: Either your opponent value bets with the weaker hand or he is bluffing.
In addition to that, it makes your game much more unpredictable and it forces your opponents to check back more, when they are ahead. In this case, the sneaky river check earned Jennifer Tilly an additional $100,000!
However, Adelstein also made a mistake by not checking behind on the river, when the flush came in. By making a questionable value bet, he puts himself into a very nasty spot on the river, when he does get check-raised All-In, since he can’t beat any value hands.
This could easily have been avoided and Garrett could have saved $100,000 simply by checking behind.
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