We have a very spectacular Poker Hand of the Week, where Sam Soverel Hero calls Michael Addamo’s shove on the turn with second pair in 2021 WSOP Event #87: $100,000 High Roller.
Poker Hand of the Week Setup
We are at the final table of 2021 WSOP Event #87: $100,000 High Roller and there are only four players left with Michael Addamo being the massive chip leader and Sam Soverel sitting second in chips, so ICM has to be considered here as well.
Michael Addamo is big chip leader at the start of our Poker Hand of the Week and has almost 2-5 times as many chips than Sam Soverel in second place.
Poker Hand of the Week Action
Preflop:
At Blinds of 150,000/300,000 Big Blind Ante 300,000 Sam Soverel raises from the button with K♣Q♥ and Michael Addamo defends his big blind with 6♥3♥. Pot Size: 1,900,000
Flop:
Heads-up to a very interesting flop of A♠Q♦3♦, which gives both players a pair. However, the Ace-high board is heavily favouring the preflop raiser Sam Soverel and he consequently makes a very small cbet of 20% to which Addamo can’t fold a pair. Pot Size: 2,650,000
Turn:
The 6♠ on the turn is a very spicy card as it makes Michael Addamo a well-disguised Two Pair. He checks over to Soverel again and Sam does go for the second barrel with his second pair.
Bottom two pair can be a tricky hand to play, but in a button vs. big blind situation you have to raise here. And raising big is what Addamo does as he puts Sam Soverel All-In. Soverel goes into the tank and then announces Call! Just to get shown the bad news and that he is an 18% underdog by Michael Addamo. Pot Size: 11,275,000
River:
Soverel has only eight outs going to the river but he binks one of them by hitting the K♠ on the river.
Sam got outplayed by Addamo here, but gets very lucky to win a massive $17,500,000 pot, which puts him almost on pair with Addamo as big chipleader.
Poker Hand of the Week Analysis
It always looks bad when a hero call goes wrong, but the question here is why a world-class tournament player like Sam Soverel did decide to call All-In with second pair? Let’s take a look.
Sam’s preflop button raise is absolute standard and so is Michael Addamo’s defend with the Suited Gapper as you are supposed to defend your big blind very wide in tournaments, especially when you are massive chip leader.
The flop is trouble for Addamo as he makes bottom pair and therefore can’t fold to a continuation bet, but Soverel has him crushed with middle pair. Cbet and Call is the logical consequence.
The 6s on the turn is a nasty card for Soverel, since he can’t put Addamo on 63, so it looks like a blank to him. Addamo does have a few Ace-rag such as A2-A5 in his range, which he would check-call with. Having said that, I would prefer a check behind from Soverel here to control the size of the pot in case he is behind.
However, Sam does fire a second barrel and hates his life, when Addamo check-raises All-In. This looks like an easy fold, but it’s not when your opponent is Michael Addamo, who is absolutely capable of having a bluff here, especially since there are two flush draws out there.
That’s also the reason, why Sam decides to make the call in the end as he puts Addamo on a draw. He is wrong though as Michael shows him a turned Two Pair, which has him crushed.
Poker Hand of the Week Conclusion
Sam’s Hero Call looks very bad here, but you have to keep in mind that Michael Addamo would play a flush or combo draw the same way.
The reason why this is a bad call is that Sam Soverel is clearly second in chips and Michael Addamo massive chip leader at the start of the hand.
There are two short stacks and ICM dictates that you don’t play a big pot against the big stack in this spot and definitely to not make any marginal or even hero calls like Soverel did.
In the end, Sam gets very lucky on the river, but nevertheless got clearly outplayed here by metagame master Michael Addamo, who made him believe that he is on a draw.
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