Poker Hand of the Week Setup
Our Poker Hand of the Week comes from Triton Poker London Short Deck Cash Game Episode 4.
The lineup of the £3,000/£6,000 Triton Poker London Short Deck Cash Game is a great mix of Chinese high stakes regulars, rich businessmen and some of the best players Short Deck players in the world such as Mikita Badziakouski, Jason Koon and Tan Xuan.
The latter two will be the protagonists in this beautiful Short Deck Hand. Both players are regulars at the Triton Poker High Roller Series and now each other’s game pretty well.
Poker Hand of the Week Action
Preflop Action:
Jason Koon limps from UTG+2 with J♥9♦ and Tan Xuan calls on the button with J♣T♥, which are both great Short Deck hands as they make a lot of two pair combinations and straights. Pot size: £24,000
Flop:
The flop 9♥J♦7♣ hits both players hard. Although Jason makes Top Two he is only a 56% favorite as Tan Xuan has outs to a higher Two Pair and the straight.
Jason makes a tricky check and Xuan bets half pot with £12,000 into £24,000, Koon calls. Pot size: £48,000
Turn:
The turn 8♣ makes Tan the straight and Koon again checks over to him. Xuan now sets the trap by checking behind. Pot size: £48,000
River:
The river J♠ is a very interesting card as Jason Koon fills up, while Tan Xuan also has a Jack in his hand, And this is where things are escalating.
Jason makes a great, small bet of £14,000 into £48,000, which serves two purposes: Getting value from a mediocre hand or to induce a bluff.
Tan indeed raises to £68,000! As there is no flush on board Jason Koon has the nuts and he 3-bets to £225,000. Xuan has him covered and quickly puts him All-In and Jason has an easy call. to win a massive pot worth £879,000 ($1,101,972).
Now the question is was it a bad bluff?
It obviously looks bad running a huge bluff directly into the nuts of your opponent, but does it make it automatically a bad play? Hell no!
What looks like a bad bluff by Tan Xuan is actually a very advanced play, which he made because he has the perfect blockers. His Jack is blocking top full house and Quads and the Ten is blocking the straight.
It is therefore pretty unlikely that Jason has a strong hand. With his 4-bet All-in on the river he also puts a lot of pressure on smaller full houses such as Pocket Sevens or Eights and might even get them to fold.
Did Tan Xuan make a mistake?
As mentioned above, Tan Xuan’s bluff made a lot of sense as he had optimal blockers, but is there anything he could have done differently?
Yes, there is as he might not have put enough attention to Jason Koon’s stack. When Jason 3-bet on the river to £225,000, he was committing himself as he had only £189,000 behind with £341,000 already in the middle.
That means, Koon was getting almost 3 to 1 and therefore would have had to call with a big part of his range.
Poker Hand of the Week Conclusion
Tan Xuan clearly didn’t make this play, because he thought that his straight is good. He probably knew it wasn’t, so he decided to represent a very strong hand himself as he was blocking top full houses and quads.
Xuan had the perfect blockers, which is a very important part of Short Deck and Pot-Limit Omaha, and he used them very well.
This play would have been even better though, if Jason Koon would have been deeper, as he was basically pot-committed after his 3-bet on the river.
Would it have been the case, then Tan Xuan could have gotten a lot of strong hands to fold. That Jason has the nuts, while Tan also holds a Jack in his hand, is simply bad luck.
- View more poker strategy articles here
Watch the Poker Hand of the Week here from 14:51 on:
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