Professional gambler Mikki always gives a lot of action and is among the most entertaining players on the Hustler Casino Live Stream. In our Poker Hand of the Week he bluffs Hustler reg Andy Stacks in a large pot with just Queen-high!
Poker Hand of the Week Setup
This hand was played at the NL$200/$400 high stakes cash game on the Hustler casino live stream featuring Antonio Esfandiari, Andy Stacks, Nick Vertucci, Mikki and more.
They are playing 6-max and both players are pretty deep with effective stack sizes being 168 big blinds. Andy has Mikki easily covered at the start of our Poker Hand of the Week.
Poker Hand of the Week Action
Preflop:
Mikki straddles to $400 and it folds around to Andy, who makes it $1,100 to go from the highjack with J♠6♠. Mikki finds a nice-looking Q♣J♣ in the straddle and 3-bets small to $3,300. Andy calls. Pot Size: $7,050
Flop:
Heads-up to the draw-heavy flop of 9♠7♣2♣, which is great for Mikki since he picks up a flush draw to go along his two overcards. He makes a sizeable 63% cbet after being checked to.
Andy then makes a very surprising check-raise to $11,000 as he only has backdoor draws and Mikki calls quickly. Pot Size: $29,500
Turn:
The 6♥ on the turn is a very interesting card as it gives Andy the best hand with a pair of Sixes. Mikki checks again and having picked up some showdown value, Stacks this time checks behind. Pot Size: $29,500
River:
The 3♥ on the river is basically a blank. Mikki has missed his draw and only has Queen-high. He knows that he can’t win a showdown by checking and so he decided to bluff by making a $11,000 donk bet.
Andy goes deep into the tank for more than a minute, but then decides to fold and Mikki wins a $42,250 pot with just Queen-high!
Poker Hand of the Week Analysis
Very interesting hand, which is definitely worth taking an in-depth look at, so here we go!
Raising Js6s from the cutoff is loose, but you have to attack the blinds every once in a while. Mikki can both call and 3-bet as his hand has a decent postflop playability.
He chooses the more aggressive route. Andy now has a fold, but instead makes the call with his marginal hand, most likely because he is in position.
The flop heavily favours the caller’s range as he calls here with hands such as JTs, 109s, 97s as well as Pocket Sevens and Pocket Deuces. However, in this particular spot it is much better for the raiser, since Mikki picks up a flush draw, while Andy whiffs completely.
Mikki elects a rather large 63% pot continuation bet sizing after being checked to. Once again, Andy has a fold here, but instead he makes a 3x check-raise. Stacks knows that this board texture heavily favours his range and probably thinks Mikki has missed, but the latter calls.
Now Andy knows that Mikki has something and he therefore checks behind on the turn, when he made a pair as he now has showdown value.
The river is a blank and now Mikki leads out for $13,000, which equals 44% pot. Andy thinks longs and thinks wrong when he ultimately folds the best hand.
Poker Hand of the Week Conclusion
This hand is a great example how important bet sizing is in poker. When asked about the hand Andy Stacks said:
“My gut wanted to call, but he bet just the right amount. If he bet a little bit less, I probably would have looked him up here.”
Nevertheless, Andy did make two mistakes early on in the hand, which got him into big trouble. Would he have just folded Js6s to the preflop 3-bet he would have lost only $1,100.
Secondly, the check-raise on the flop was too lose as Stacks only had backdoor draws. I would have preferred a check-raise with a gutshot, open-ender or flush draw, but only his backdoors don’t justify a call.
As a consequence, Andy ends up in a difficult spot and loses a big pot, where a pretty easy fold preflop would have saved him.
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Watch the Poker Hand of the Week from 7:14 here:
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