In our Poker Hand of the Week we analyze the best call of High Stakes Poker Season 9 by Tom Dwan in a massive $389,500 pot against DoorDash founder Stanley Tang.
Poker Hand of the Week Setup
Our Poker Hand of the Week comes from the Season Finale of High Stakes Poker Season 9, featuring poker superstars Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, and DoorDash founder Stanley Tang.
They are playing 7-max NL $500/$1,000 and Tom Dwan has Stanley Tang easily covered. Effective stack sizes at the start of the Poker Hand of the Week are 193 big blinds.
Poker Hand of the Week Action
Preflop:
Jason Koon raises from Under The Gun to $2,500 with 10♣7♣ and DoorDash founder Stanley Tang calls in middle position with 10♠2♠.
When the action comes to Tom Dwan, he looks up Q♥Q♣ in the small blind. Great spot for Dwan, who 3-bets to $13,000. Jason Koon folds, but Tang makes the call. Pot Size: $32,500
Flop:
The flop comes 4♦2♥7♦ and Dwan makes a rather large continuation bet of 68% pot, in order to protect his overpair. Tang has flopped bottom pair and decides to see a turn. Pot Size: $76,500
Turn:
The J♦ is a big scare card for Dwan as the front door flush draw comes in. Tom Dwan checks and Tang now takes over the initiative by betting $40,000 into $76,500. Dwan check-calls. Pot Size: $156,500
River:
The 7♥ on the river is another scare card for Dwan’s overpair as now a flopped set made a full house and Trips also beat him, so he checks.
Stanley Tang can only win by betting and he pulls the trigger by going All-in for $116,000. However, the All-in is only for 74% pot size and Dwan goes deep into the tank.
He the hand through and ends up making a great call to win a well-deserved $389,500 pot.
Poker Hand of the Week Analysis
Another great call by Tom Dwan. Let’s go through his decision making process step by step.
Picking up Pocket Queens in the small blind when you have such a loose-aggressive image like Tom Dwan is a great spot, since you can make very large squeezes, while your opponent won’t give you credit for a hand. This is what Dwan does with a 5.6x 3-bet. Koon folds, but Tang makes a pretty loose call with 102s.
The flop is very good for Dwan’s overpair, but there are a few draws, so I like his rather large cbet sizing to protect his hand. Tang has flopped a pair, so it makes sense for him to see a turn.
On the turn the flush draw comes in and as played Stanley could definitely have it. That’s why Dwan checks over to him. Stanley realizes that he could represent the flush and does that by betting a little bit more than half pot. Tom goes into the tank for a few seconds and then decides that he shouldn’t fold to a single bet.
On the river the board pairs, so now Tom Dwan loses against a flush, a full house and trips. Many hands beat him now and he looks disgusted, when Tang announces All-in.
The only problem of this All-In is that, Stanley only had 74% pot behind, so Tom does get very good pot odds of 3.5 to 1 on a call.
That’s probably also the reason, why Dwan ends up making this fantastic call after going through the hand over and over for 1.5 minutes.
Poker Hand of the Week Conclusion
Amazing call by Tom Dwan, but the reason why he is able to make it is simply great pot odds and mathematics.
Dwan still beats all the straight draws with 65s and 53s as well as any Jack for top pair on the turn.
Given that he gets pot odds of 3.5 to 1 he only needs to be good every 4.5th time, which is just enough to make this very difficult call.
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