Poker Hand of the Week Setup
We analyse another very interesting hand from the infamous NL$1,000/$2,000 game at GG Network between high stakes stars Wiktor limitless Malinowski and Sam Greenwood. It results in a massive $188,872 pot after Sam is perfectly inducing a bluff on the turn, but watch what happens then on the river…
We are back in railbird’s heaven at the infamous GG Network NL$1,000/$2,000 game, which continues to produce some of the biggest pots and most interesting hands in online poker history.
Clearly driving the action is the new high stakes prodigy Wiktor “limitless” Malinowski, who is known for his ultra-aggressive style and part of most of the really big pots.
Limitless and Sam Greenwood are both regulars in the 6-max NL$500/$1,000/$2,000 game, which means they know each other’s game very well. The effective stack sizes at the beginning of the hand are 46.2 big blinds.
Poker Hand of the Week Action
Preflop Action:
Limitless makes it $6,000 to go from the small blind with K♣Q♠ and Sam Greenwood 3-bets from the big blind with A♠J♥ to $18,000. Wiktor calls. Pot size: $39,200
Flop:
The flop of 5♠5♣3♣ is pretty dry and clearly benefits Sam’s preflop 3-betting range. Greenwood consequently makes a continuation bet. However, he decides to go very small with quarter pot by betting $10,000 into $39,200.
Limitless is known to be very sticky and he does indeed stick around with only King-high and a backdoor flush draw. Pot Size: $59,200
Turn:
The A♣ on the turn is a very interesting card as it makes Sam Greenwood top pair, but at the same time the flush comes in and limitless picks up the nut flush draw.
Malinowski checks over to Greenwood, who once again bets very small with $14,800 into $59,200 with only $50,036 behind.
Sam tries to induce a move from Wiktor and this is exactly what happens as limitless puts him All-In. Greenwood calls pretty quickly and sees that he is a 79.55% favourite to win the hand.
Wiktor has 9 outs to make his flush though, which gives him decent odds of 20.45%. However, they only run it once. Pot Size: $188,872
River:
The river 8♣ is brutal for Sam Greenwood as limitless does indeed make the flush after being a 4 to 1 underdog, when the money went in on the turn, and a huge $188,872 Pot is pushed to Wiktor.
Poker Hand of the Week Analysis
What a sick hand and brutal runout for Sam Greenwood, who played the hand well, made a great call and nevertheless ended up losing a massive pot, but let’s go through the hand street by street.
Preflop is absolute standard. I don’t really like the small continuation bet on the flop of only quarter pot by Sam Greenwood and will explain why. Sure, Sam only has Ace-high and tries to win and end the pot with the minimal investment, but limitless is known to be extremely sticky and likes to float, so he opens up the door for him to stick around with his overcards and backdoor flush draw. Would Greenwood have bet 50%+ pot, he would have probably won the hand right here.
Things are looking completely different on the turn, as I really like the small bet, when Sam makes top pair. Greenwood now has a really strong hand and intention behind this very small turn bet is to induce a bluff by limitless. It works out to perfection as Wiktor decides to make a big semi-bluff and puts all the money in with only 9 outs. This is exactly what Sam Greenwood wanted and he snap-calls to see that he is a massive 4 to 1 favourite to win the hand.
On the contrary, Malinowski doesn’t get the right pot odds for his semi-bluff All-In as he has to bet approximately potsize and therefore only gets 2 to 1, when he needed at least 3 to 1.
Nonetheless, poker can be a brutal game and the right play unfortunately doesn’t always get rewarded. Sam Greenwood played the hand very well and perfectly induced a bluff by Wiktor. That he ends up losing the hand here after getting his money in on the turn as a massive 4 to 1 favourite is simply bad luck. Nevertheless, in the long-term great plays like this will make Sam Greenwood a lot of money.
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Watch the Poker Hand of the Week from 0:48 here:
