In our Poker Hand of the Week we are analysing one of the most debated All-In calls ever by Daniel Negreanu vs. Michael Addamo in Level 1 of Super High Roller Bowl VI.
Poker Hand of the Week Setup
We are in Level 1 of Super High Roller Bowl VI with an absolute elite field and a whopping $3,402,000 up top.
The tournament has just started 6-handed and Michael Addamo has Daniel Negreanu slightly covered at the start of our Poker Hand of the Week.
Poker Hand of the Week Action
Preflop:
In Level 1 at Blinds of 1,000/2,000 Big Blind Ante 1,000 action folded around to DNegs on the button, who raised to 2,500 with A♥K♦. Michael Addamo decided to defend his big blind with 8♠6♣. Pot Size: 11,000.
Flop:
Heads-up to a flop come of 5♣7♥9♦, which gives Addamo the stone-cold nuts. He checks to the preflop raiser and since this board texture clearly favours the caller Daniel Negreanu wisely checks behind. Pot Size: 11,000
Turn:
The A♠ on the turn is a potential trouble card for Negreanu as it makes him top pair top kicker. Michael Addamo checks over to Daniel again and this time he bets 3,500.
Michael Addamo is known for his unique and very creative style and he proves it here by making a 10x check-raise to 36,000. DNegs calls. Pot Size: 83,000
River:
On the 5♥ river, Michael makes a massive 3x overbet shove and puts Daniel to the test for his tournament life. Negreanu goes deep into the tank and uses several shot-clock time extension chips before he announces call!
Michael Addamo turns over the straight and Daniel Negreanu busts in the first level of a $300,000 tournament!
Poker Hand of the Week Analysis
At first glance this looks like a horrible call by Daniel Negreanu given that we are in the very first level of the tournament, but is that really the case? Let’s analyse this hand in-depth.
Daniel’s preflop raise is a must, while Addamo’s big blind defend is debatable. Yes, you are supposed to defend the majority of your big blinds, but given how tight Negreanu plays and that Addamo has to play the hand out of position a fold is certainly no mistake.
The flop is absolute gin for Addamo, while Daniel completely whiffs. Michael tries to set up a check-raise by checking, but since this flop heavily favours the big blinds range, Negreanu makes a good check behind.
The Ace of Spades on the turn is a nasty card for DNegs as he now has top top. Addamo checks over to him again and this time Daniel goes for a delayed cbet of 32% pot just to get check-raised 10x by Addamo! Negreanu does make the call tough and suddenly we have a big pot here.
The board pairs on the river and Michael Addamo makes a huge overbet shove for three times pot size. Daniel Negreanu goes deep into the tank before ultimately flicking in the call and just like that his $300,000 buy-in is gone!
Poker Hand of the Week Conclusion
You might think wow Michael Addamo is completely owning Daniel Negreanu here and DNegs made a very bad call, but if you analyse the hand using a GTO solver it turns out that this actually is not the case.
Who is familiar with Addamo’s game knows that he bluffs a lot and is totally capable to bluff-shove here with total air like in this Poker Hand of the Week vs. mczhang. Taking this and the fact into consideration that the solver recommends to shove on any blank river, you are sometimes supposed to bluffcatch here with a hand like Ace-King.
This might surprise you and in this case it didn’t work out at all and led to disaster, but that doesn’t necessarily make it a horrible call, especially not from a GTO perspective.
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