This is one of the craziest hands I have ever seen. It features two players being dealt the best possible starting hand: pocket aces. It only spells trouble in this huge WSOP event. The buy-in for the event was $1,000,000.
The players in question are Cary Katz and Connor Drinan. They raise and re-raise each other before the flop until one of them goes all-in. It all seems fine when they turn their cards over. Until two of Katz’ hearts show up on the flop. Then a third on the turn. And a fourth on the river. Katz miraculously hits a flush on an almost certainly split pot, and eliminates Drinan. It was one of the worst bad beats in poker history, and it was definitely the costliest. $1,000,000 down the drain. That’s gotta hurt.
He even cringes with a poker face.
-Dylan
#ChaseTheBracelet
P.S. Send me your favorite, cringe-worthy bad beats in the comments!
Today’s edition of Bad Beat of the Week features poker legends Gus Hansen and Daniel Negreanu, and we will get right into the action. You can watch the video, which features play-by-play from Negreanu, here.
Hansen is dealt pocket 5’s while Negreanu is dealt pocket 6’s. The flop comes: 9, 6, 5. Both players find a set and bet hard. The turn card is the last 5 in the deck! Negreanu loves his full house and Hansen is ecstatic about his quad 5’s (which is of course the better hand).
The eventual river card is an 8, which makes a straight easy to obtain. Hansen decides to slowplay his quad 5’s as if he is afraid of the straight. This strategy works well enough to convince Negreanu that he has the better hand. Negreanu bets $60,000 (of actual money), and Hansen check-raises him all-in. Negreanu calls the confusing bet and Hansen doubles up.
This is one of the very rare times that somebody loses a hand despite holding a full house.
Send me an infamous bad beat, whether its a story or a video, in the comments!
This topic has been bothering me ever since I saw people arguing about it on YouTube. There is a good chance that I am the victim of trolls, but who knows?
This guy knows.
Basically, two poker terms sound a lot alike but mean very different things. And people get them confused.
Slowrolling occurs post-hand, when a player who has won the hand doesn’t show both of their cards immediately. The player shows one card (most likely the weaker or less important card), lets the anticipation build, and then shows their other card. This is considered poor etiquette in the poker world, especially when you make your opponent feel as if they have won the hand.
Slowplaying occurs when a player with a very strong hand pretends like they have a weak hand, to encourage aggressive play by their opponents. It is essentially reverse bluffing. It is not considered poor etiquette. It is simply skilled play.
The argument I read was butchering these definitions. It also accused slowplaying of being improper etiquette. I hope that these were just two trolls with poker faces.
Here is a video example of a slowroll and a video example of a slowplay.
If you have any other questions about definitions or lingo, feel free to ask in the comments!
Today I will be addressing the downfalls of check-raising. At first, it may seem like a sneaky move. You think you’ve got the best hand, but you don’t bet. You see if your opponent will try to bet. And if they do, you raise him or her to get more money.
Now here is a situation where the check-raise worked. It was a good move because Antonius was almost positive that he had the best possible hand. He didn’t realistically risk Tony G catching a better hand by letting him see more free cards. That is one of the main problems with the check-raise. If your opponent doesn’t bet off of your check, then you just gave them another chance to complete their hand without paying.
In fact, 10-time bracelet winner Doyle Brunson rarely check-raises for this very reason. He believes that you should bet with a strong hand because it is the more profitable route overall. Lastly, it becomes very clear that you are slow playing a strong hand when you check-raise.
If you can read your opponent, the check-raise becomes an opportunistic bluff. But for the most part, leave this play at home.
“Check, please.”
How do YOU play the check-raise? Tell me in the comments!
You’ve likely heard the famous Kenny Rogers song, the Gambler.
You’ve likely seen the overplayed commercial one too many times.
And if you’re lucky, you’ve seen the sketch depicting Rogers on MAD TV.
No context necessary.
Aside from Rogers’ make-believe antics, he’s got one concept right: “You’ve got to know when to hold ’em… know when to fold ’em.” But this isn’t as simple as figuring out if your hand is better than your opponent’s. As Phil Hellmuth always says, “You are playing your opponents, not the cards.” (I disagree… It’s a combination of both… but he’s the one with 13 world championships, so….)
What I’m getting at is that being able to read your opponents is an incredibly useful skill in both offensive and defensive play. Once you start to pick up on the tendencies of your opponents, you can win pots with the worst hand (by bluffing), and you can avoid losing a ton of chips (by folding). It also helps when it comes to value-betting, which occurs when you have the best hand but bet just enough to keep your opponents in the hand without folding. It is essentially profit maximization.
It also makes for entertaining poker. Here is a video of the best call I have ever seen. Mercier looked back at the way his opponent bet throughout the hand and what that meant based on the cards. He eventually figured out that his opponent was bluffing the entire time and called him.
It is even harder to fold a great hand. Even if you think your opponent has you beat, it can be incredibly tempting to play it out. Watch Hellmuth make a world class fold here despite catching a flush. It’s hard to play against someone who flops a full house. But it’s about playing your opponents, hey Phil? In all honestly, he saved himself an extra 50,000 chips by laying the flush down.
Lastly, the ability to bet enough to bluff is all based off of reading opponents. You can guess the strength of their hands by their physical cues and betting tendencies. Many players make information bets, which are bets to see where their hand stands against their opponents. If you bet and the other player simply calls, he or she probably doesn’t have all that great of a hand. And from there, you should bet hard to “buy” the pot.
Here is a huge bluff made in the finals of the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event. Chris Moneymaker rose to fame after winning a bid to the WSOP Main Event from an online tournament, and then winning the WSOP Main Event. He was basically a nobody entering the tournament, but online play served him well. Notice how there is the possibility of a straight, a flush, a higher pocket pair, trips, and even two pair in this hand. This could have been all she wrote for Chris Moneymaker. But with all of those possibilities, Farha figured that Moneymaker had to have him beat, even though he didn’t.
Send me YOUR tips, strategies, and favorite plays in the comments below!
cardsharkpoker 