Everyone loves to see a soul read in a major TV poker event. There isn’t anything better in the game than to see a great player make the cards transparent to get away from a hand that lesser players could never do.
Here are the top five hero folds from the recent 2024 WSOP.
Hand #5 – 2024 WSOP Main Event Day 8
The first hand of note comes from Day 8 of the Main Event where we see three big hitters clash on a board that hits all three hands with potential for a heavy loss of chips for all players.
Jordan Griff raises it up to 3.2M with 5♠ 5♦ from UTG and Niklas Astedt makes a standard call with 7♠ 7♦ in the small blind. Joseph Serock decides to come along with 8♦ 7♥.
The flop comes down 5♥ 9♠ 6♣
Serock has the nuts while Griff thinks he’s sitting pretty with bottom set and Astedt will be happy to continue with his pair plus a gutshot and great blockers.
Astedt leads out for 3.5M into the pot of 11.2M. Serock decides not to raise and Griff flat calls behind.
The turn is the Q♦ and now Astedt slows down with a check. Serock now bets, as expected, pushing out 11M into the middle with a calm demeanour. Griff makes the call and Astedt chooses to pitch his hand.
The pot is now 43.7M and the river is the 5♣ turning the tables completely.
Serock pauses for a second and still thinks a value bet for 35M is on. But only seconds later, Griff jams in the remainder of his 61M stack to leave Serock in an awful spot deep in the biggest event of the year.
Incredibly, though, Serock asks for a count but knows he is beaten already and so makes an amazing fold to save his tournament.
Hand #4 – 2024 WSOP Main Event Day 2D
This next hand is a construction that will often happen only once or twice in a player’s career.
Robert Eichele raises to 3.5K with Q♥ Q♦ from MP. Lynn Phan plays it cute from the hi-jack, only flat calling with A♠ A♣.
Barry Hutter now wakes up with K♠ K♦on the button and 3-bets to 12K.
Eichele is only sitting on an 80K stack but Phan has 259K, covering the 208K of Hutter. This is a dangerous spot and one that many players will struggle to deal with.
With the smaller stack, Eichele sees now reason why he shouldn’t go with his queens and bumps it up to 29K.
Phan, rather than playing her hand face up, only raises to 63.5K, making Hutter’s next decision a tough one.
But it only takes the American a minute before he throws his hand into the muck, convinced he made the right play. Amazingly, Eichele follows suit and bins his hand, too.
Hand #3 – 2024 $1,500 WSOP Freezeout
This hand comes from the heads-up battle between Even Benton and Balakrishna Patur for the $1,500 Freezeout title.
Patur limps in with 5♥ 3♥ and Benton raises it up to 1.8M, holding K♣ 9♣. Patur calls.
The flop is 10♥ 3♦ 9♥ and Benton bets out 1.1M. Patur now puts in the raise, declining the call option with his pair and flush draw.
The turn is the 6♠ and both players check.
The river couldn’t have been any more awkward. When the K♥ is turned over Benton has two pair which is tough to lay down in a heads-up battle with a flush still only a small part of Patur’s range.
Benton still decides to check his strong hand and faces a bet of 7M from Patur.
Many players might have been expecting Benton to see his hand as a check-raise in this heads-up spot but, once again, we see a top quality fold with a great read that it’s tough for Patur to be bluffing.
Hand #2 – 2024 WSOP Main Event Day 5
Adrian Mateos is a candidate for the best NL tournament player in the world right now, and this soul read fold is a great example of why that is.
Deep into the Main Event, the Spaniard finds himself looking down at K♠ K♥ on the button, facing a raise from William Berry who has A♠ A♣.
Mateos makes the standard three-bet and faces a quick four-bet from Berry.
Mateos opts to just call.
The flop comes down 4♦ Q♦ 2♣and the pot is 1.36M. Mateos has the shorter stack of 3.8M to Berry’s 4.3M.
Berry leads out for 425K and Mateos puts in the call.
The 10♠ turn is an interesting card, now making it less likely that either player has pocket queens or tens.
That said, Mateos is the player more likely to hold that hand.
Berry now bets 1.3M, sending Mateos into the tank with the commentators unsure that he can ever fold given how much of his stack he has already invested.
But elite players such as Adrian Mateos never cease to amaze us with their senses that danger is afoot and the Spaniard makes the correct fold.
Hand #5 – 2024 WSOP $50,000 Poker Players Championship
The final hand comes from the $50,000 Poker Players Championship where we see GGPoker ambassador Daniel Negreanu clash with Jeremy Ausmus during a round of PLO.
We join the action on the flop of K♥ 3♥ 3♦ where Maxx Coleman has checked his A♠ K♠ J♥ 5♦.
Daniel Negreanu is in the big blind looking at J♦ J♣ 9♣ 3♣ and leads out of turn for 20K into a 60K pot.
Jeremy Ausmus decides to call with his pair and mediocre flush draw and Coleman comes along with only top pair.
The turn is the 10♠ and Coleman checks again with Negreanu opting to slow down, too.
Ausmus bets 65K with his turned full house and Coleman continues with top pair and a gutter.
Negreanu now announces to the table that he misread his hand, saying he thought he was bluffing on the flop but now sees that he has trips. He also makes the call.
The river is the 9♥, giving the Canadian an inferior full house running deep in an event he desperately wants to win to end a decade-long drought.
The action checks to Ausmus who now bets 300K into a pot of 315K with Coleman quickly folding his weak hand.
But Negreanu has a tough decision, particularly with this large bet size. He now gets vocal, telling the table what he thinks Ausmus might have but it doesn’t take long before he senses that he is beat, leaving the commentators stunned and saying it’s one of the best folds they’ve seen this summer.
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