In our Poker Hand of the Week we analyze the Bluff of the Year by Rampage with just Ace-high in a massive $1,100,000 Pot at the Million Dollar Game.
Poker Hand of the Week Setup
This spectacular poker hand was played at the $500/$1,000/$2,000 Big Blind Ante Million Dollar Game at Hustler Casino Live, which featured Nik Airball, Huss, Wesley Ethan “Rampage” Yau, Handz and Tony G.
Rampage has Handz covered at the start of our Poker Hand of the Week with effective stack size being 426 big blinds.
Poker Hand of the Week Action
Preflop:
Rampage open-raises to $9,000 from the small blind with A♣7♣ and Handz decides to just call with Q♠Q♥ inviting Pav to come along as well from the straddle with K♥8♦. Pot Size: $29,000
Flop:
3-way to the action flop of J♦Q♦10♣ flop, which gives Handz Top Set and the Pav and Rampage straight draws. It checks around to Pav, who bet $15,000 with his open-ended straight draw.
And this is where the hand starts to get interesting as Rampage then check-raises to $50,000, Handz calls and Pav gets out of the way. Pot Size: $144,000
Turn:
The 2♣ on the turn gave Yau a flush draw to go alongside his straight draw and he decides to overbet the turn with $175,000 into $144,000. However, Handz still has Top Set and calls. Pot Size: $494,000
River:
The 5♠ on the river is a blank and Rampage’s combo draw busts, so he has to bluff in order to win the hand. And Yau does indeed pull the biggest possible bluff by overbet shoving $618,000 into $494,000.
After 50 seconds Handz folds Top Set just to get shown Ace-high by Ethan, who wins a huge $1,100,000 with a Stone Cold Bluff.
Poker Hand of the Week Analysis
This is one of the most interesting spots we have seen in a while, so let’s run an in-depth analysis.
Preflop Ethan has an easy raise with Ac7c when it folds to him in the small blind. Now Handz picks up Pocket Queens in the big blind and has an even easier 3-bet as you have to protect your hand from all the Ace-highs and King-highs.
However, Handz decides to just call, which in my opinion is a mistake, since you are not only giving your opponent the chance to outdraw you on the flop, you also invite the straddle to come along, while Pocket Queens is a hand you ideally want to play heads-up. Given the favourable pot odds, Pav understandably also calls with K8o and we go to the flop.
The JdQd10c flop is as wet as it gets in Texas Hold’em. Rampage and Handz check to Pav in the straddle, who takes a stab at the pot with his OESD. Ethan now makes a large 3.5x check-raise.
It is important to note that he was the preflop raiser and therefore is the only one of the three players, who has an uncapped range. That means, only Rampage can have Ace-King here plus he can also have K-9 or 9-8.
Nevertheless, Handz has a very well-disguised and underrepped Top Set after just calling pre, so his hand is way too strong to fold. Given how deep they are, you don’t want to raise in case Yau does have a straight, so calling is the right play. Pav folds.
The 2c on the turn is a very good card for Rampage as it gives him the Nut Flush Draw on top of his gutshot, so it is an ideal card for a second barrel. Ethan goes very big by overbetting the pot, which means he is polarizing his hand. Handz should only call in this spot, because if he raises and Yau goes All-In he will almost always be up against a straight.
On the 5s river all draws bust and Rampage now has only one decision left. Does he continue to tell the story of a big hand or does he give up?
Since Ethan is not really a player, who gives up so easily he decides to fire the third barrel and puts maximum pressure on Handz by putting him All-In.
This puts Handz in a nasty spot as he has a bad hand to call. Why is that you may ask? Simply because he doesn’t block any of Yau’s value hands such as A-K or K-9.
Even though Handz has Top Set here a hand such as Pocket Kings or even King-Queen are the much better calling hands as you clock Ace-King and King-Nine, which are the hands that Rampage are representing here.
Suddenly, you only beat a bluff with Top Set and the chances that your opponent is bluffing in a pot as large as 550 big blinds are very low.
So as crazy as it sounds, folding Top Set here does actually make sense!
Poker Hand of the Week Conclusion
Incredibly interesting hand and super advanced bluff by Rampage.
As impressive as having the balls to run a bluff for $1,100,000 with just Ace-high is to being able to correctly fold Top Set, when you don’t unblock and beat any of the value hands your opponent can have.
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