Poker Hand of the Week Setup
In our Poker Hand of the Week Sam Soverel demonstrates how to get maximum value, when he turns a set vs. Chris Johnson on Poker After Dark.
Poker After Dark Season 12 Week 4 called “One Bourbon, One Shot, and No Fear” features Sam Soverel, Jake Daniels, Chris Johnson, Jonathan Little, Alex Ding, Justin Young and Jake Daniels, who we already know two from the new season of High Stakes Poker.
Jonathan Little, Jake Daniels and Alex Ding were all sent to the rails, which means they are only playing 3-handed NL $200/$400 now.
Sam Soverel and Chris Johnson are both seasoned poker pros and have quite some history. Chris has Sam covered.
Poker Hand of the Week Action
Preflop:
Justin Young limps on the button with 8♣7♣ and Sam Soverel makes it $1,900 to go with Q♠Q♣ from the small blind.
Chris Johnson looks at A♣2♣ in the big blind and calls and Justin also comes along. Pot Size: $6,100
Flop:
3-handed to a flop of A♠6♦9♥, which gives Johnson top pair, while Young has an open-ended straight draw. Johnson checks and Young and Soverel check behind. Pot Size: $6,100
Turn:
Q♦ on the turn and Sam Soverel binks a set. He checks, but again both of his opponents check behind. Pot Size: $6,100
River:
K♠ on the river and Sam checks for a third time. Chris now value bets his top pair by putting $2,000 into the middle and Justin folds.
When the action comes back to Soverel, he puts in a big check-raise to $11,000.
Chris Johnson goes into the tank, but ultimately throws in one of his chips signalising a call. Sam Soverel turns over his set and collects a large $28,100 pot.
Poker Hand of the Week Analysis
Nice trap by Sam, which gives him max value with his turned set. Checking three times with a very strong hand is risky as there is the danger that your opponents check behind, but it can also pay off big time and in this spot Soverel got the maximum.
Let’s go through the hand one more time. Preflop is pretty standard as all three have decent starting hands.
I don’t like the check behind on the turn from Chris though as you should take a small stab here, when flopping top pair here to see where you are at in the hand. Sizing-wise a small bet of 1/3 pot is totally enough to get this information.
The turn is interesting as Sam now has a well-disguised set. He knows that he has the best hand here, but since both of his opponents checked the flop, he checks again for two reasons: As a trap and to give your opponents the chance to make a hand. However, they check behind.
Checking again on the river is therefore pretty risky as you miss out on a lot of value, if they check behind again. On the other hand, Soverel made the decision to trap already on the turn and now continues.
Luckily for him, Chris Johnson does have a hand here with top pair. After it was checked around twice, Chris has to assume that he has the best hand and needs to make a value bet, which he does with 1/3 pot, which is fine.
However, when Sam goes for the big check-raise on the river after having checked both the flop and the turn, this is a clear sign of strength. In addition to that, the straight for JT as well as several, possible Two Pair combinations such as AK, KQ and K9s, K6s came in.
For the reasons given plus the fact that Johnson has not invested much in the pot, make this a pretty clear fold.
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Watch the Poker Hand of the Week here:
