In our Poker Hand of the Week we analyze the big bluff by Maria Ho against Jungleman in their Game of Gold Heads-Up Match.
Poker Hand of the Week Setup
This spectacular hand was played in Game of Gold Episode 8, which featured Maria Ho, Jungleman, Fedor Holz, Josh Arieh, Kyna England and Yoh Viral.
In this episode, they are playing Heads-up with 100 big blinds starting stacks and Maria Ho has an almost 2 to 1 chip lead at the start of the hand.
Poker Hand of the Week Action
Preflop:
We are in Level 4 with Blinds of 60K/120K. Maria Ho limps in the small blind with 8♦3♦ and Jungleman checks his option in the big with 8♥2♦. Pot Size: 240,000
Flop:
The flop comes 9♥7♣2♥ and Jungle makes bottom pair, while Maria whiffs completely.
Cates checks, Ho bets 100k and Jungleman calls. Pot Size: 440,000
Turn:
The J♦ on the turn does complete the straight draw for 10-8, but in this case doesn’t change much. Jungle checks for a second time and Maria sizes up to 330k (75% pot). Jungleman check-calls again with only 960,000 behind. Pot Size: 1,100,000
River:
The board pairs on the 9♦ river. Cates checks for a third time and Ho bets 370,000 (1/3 Pot).
Jungle goes deep into the tank for more than 1.5 minutes before ultimately folding his hand and Maria Ho wins a large 1,500,000 pot with just Eight-high.
Poker Hand of the Week Analysis
Very interesting hand and bluff by Maria Ho. Let’s take an in-depth look at it.
Maria limps on the button with 8d3d. It has become popular in recent years to limp on the button and it helps to build a balanced limping range.
When building a limping range your basic approach is:
- You want to limp a weak range against passive opponents that check too much in the big blind.
- You want to limp a strong range against aggressive players that shove a lot vs. limps.
Jungleman has 8h2d and has an easy check, and they see a flop.
The flop of 9h7c2h is interesting, because Jungle makes a pair. Maria misses the flop completely, but decides to take a 42% pot stab at it. Jungleman has flopped a pair and can’t fold to a single bet.
The Jd on the turn is a decent card for Ho as it hits her limping range. Cates checks, and she fires a large second barrel of 75% pot. Jungle does make the call though.
The 9d on the river is actually not a good card, when you are bluffing, as the board pairs. So the board structure doesn’t change and if your pair is the best hand on the flop and turn, then it is most likely still the best hand on the river.
However, there are two factors that favour a bluff here: Firstly, Maria Ho has a very tight image as she played very honest in the previous rounds, which Jungleman watched from the lounge.
Secondly, Jungleman has the cards he wants her to have as he is blocking 8-6 for the straight draw and also has a Heart in his hand, which makes it more unlikely that Maria is on a flush draw.
Those are probably the two reasons why Jungle ends up folding and Ho gets the Triple Barrel Bluff through.
Poker Hand of the Week Conclusion
The main reason, why this Triple Barrel Bluff worked is Maria Ho’s very tight image. In addition to that, Metagame plays a significant role here as well.
Until that match, she played very honest and didn’t make any bluffs, so that they even called her “Maria never bluffs Ho”.
Jungleman watched her previous matches and perceives her like that. Maria knows that and beautifully takes advantage of that by playing her image to perfection.
Watch the Poker Hand of the Week from 17:07 on here:
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