Thursday, August 23, 2007

Crazy Poker Hand

Watch this hand and discuss.

6 comments:

Ryan said...

I'm not sure exactly what show this is from, but it looks like "Late Night Poker," or at least a poker show in England that copied LNP's style. The players are googleable as seasoned European poker players...

royalbacon said...

It said in the background on one of the screens "Party Poker.net European (something)". Anyway, yeah, that's nuts.

I'm sure I've told you about the hand where we punished the smokers at our long-ago table by setting up the deck to deal those who were out of the room smoking pocket QQ, KK and AA, while giving somebody in the know 22. At that time nobody at the table was considered a "seasoned player". The pre-determined flop comes QKA. Yet nobody gets all in. Turn brings a 2, and I think that's when all the money gets into the center of the table (this is a sit-and-go) and river brings the case 2. The smokers had no idea, didn't even QUESTION it until after we told them that we'd set it all up. Quite fun. You listening Joe? Consider yourself warned.

Back to the video: maybe, with that little blip at the very end of Phil Helmuth, that's exactly what happened. All the guys were standing around during a commercial break and Phil came out, paid of the dealer, and set up the deck.

That fold of the kings pre-flop -- this must be a tourney and not a cash game. If it's a cash game, that's the best lay-down I've ever witnessed. Even as a tourney, that's pure Doyle.

Would have happened either way, though. If the guy with kings calls the all in, I don't think in a tourney I'm calling two all-ins ahead of me with queens. So the queens folds and the Kings make a set to crack the aces.

That was nice acting by the guy with Aces. But the announcers say he's one of the best trappers.

Very interesting...

Ryan said...

I would also like to know the format and stack sizes heading into the hand. Regardless, though, it's the most amazing perfect storm of unbelievable odds, incredible decisions, and dramatic results that I've ever seen.

An outstanding read with KK. It was an incredible laydown, but was it a good one, really? I mean, how certain of your read do you have to be to lay it down, there?

As the announcers mention, Harrington basically says, don't worry about it, treat it like set over set. If you are folding KK preflop because of a read of aces, you are probably going to be wrong with your read too many times to make folding correct in the long run.

Is this just an example of someone making a -EV preflop fold that worked out, or did he genuinely have him read so well that it was a +EV fold? We don't know enough about the players involved from the one clip to really be able to answer that.

Regardless...amazing.

Sushi Cowboy said...

Photoshopped! So fake!

Sushi Cowboy said...

Yeah, when the guy gets up from the table I assume it is a tourney.

As for the hand itself, KK raises, gets, re-raised, and a shove. If he is following the "third raise means Aces" rule then he should be concerned. Could be Kings as well. But it wouldn't surprise me that these blokes have all played each other before and if AA is a master trapper I imagine KK knows the book on him. Could be that AA is really tight as well and KK knows that he wouldn't hem and haw then push with AK or QQ. KK also is unlikely to get into a heads up match if QQ comes along so he needs to dodge even more cards plus it is likely/possible that someone has a hand like AK that can take his hand down also.

Cash game: horrible play. In a tourney, I think it can be a right play depending on the payout structure and the reputation of AA.

jsola said...

Totally agreed with Martin here.

I'm sure anyone who's played with the "master trapper" for long enough knows exactly what the 5 minute hollywooding and "OH I GUESS I SHOVE" means. Then he starts throwing table talk around, clearly begging for a call.

I'm not saying laying down KK wasn't awesome there, but anyone who hollywoods like that is going to give off some serious tells unless they're really good at it.