High Stakes Poker Recap: Season 5, Episode 13, Final Episode

I do apologize, dear spritpot readers, for the rack of posting recently. This week was a really busy one for me at school, so I hope you'll understand. One announcement: I have recorded a video for CardRunners as one of their "guest pros". If you don't know about CR already, it is one of the top poker instructional sites out there. Furthermore, through collaboration with Full Tilt, you can get a CR membership for free if you play enough on Full Tilt, either by signing up for rakeback through CR, or by accumulating monthly points through totally free poker training. So if you're already a CR member, be on the lookout for the video. If not, become one...and then be on the lookout for the video.

Anyway, on to a look back at last week's High Stakes Poker episode. I actually watched this one with a couple of friends who have played a little bit of poker but aren't too experience and tried to narrate the action as it went along. We had just finished watching the atrocity that was Game 3 of the Cavs-Magic series and were looking for something more entertaining on TV. Here's approximately what I was saying two minutes in, with what was happening on screen in italics:

The Fat Man limps in early with A8o, Eli limps behind with Qh2h, as does Doyle with A8o.

"Tom Dwan is about to raise these limpers. Look at this man. Remember his features. If you ever find yourself at a poker table with him and a couple hundred k on the table, take said money off table and leave the game. Also, Eli Elezra...that guy REALLY hates folding."

Dwan looks down at 55, a veritable monster compared to his range for raising these limpers, and pops it to $5k from the small blind. Of course everybody calls. The frop comes AcJh8h.

"OK, get ready for some action. The Fat Man and Doyle are going to betting, and Eli doesn't like folding, he could put in a bunch of money to try and get a heart."

Dwan smartly checks, The Fat Man leads for $20k, and Eli calls. Doyle raises to $95k.

"Well, I think that's too big of a bet for Eli to call. He'd be pretty much committing himself with a draw that could be dominated. I guess Doyle and The Fat Man will just end up getting it in and chopping up Eli and Dwan."

The Fat Man does indeed shove. It gets to Eli who...isn't folding yet!

"Wow...Eli is seriously thinking about calling off $150k more with a queen-high draw when the ace on the board isn't of hearts? I mean, I know he hates folding, but holy hell...."

Friend: "But shouldn't he call? He has odds to call right?"

Me (firing up PokerStove): "Strictly speaking, in this particular, instance, yes. He has 35% equity given that they both have A8, which means he could call. But either one of them could easily have a better heart draw than him, either with Ahxh or KhTh for a pair and a straight draw. Even if one of the other two players is going nuts with a lower flush draw, those are blockers to Eli drawing out against third player, who must have some kind of made hand. Doyle and The Fat Man both have ranges of something like Ahxh, KhTh, AJ, A8, and 88. Against two players with those ranges, Eli has less than 14 percent equity. He's just gotta fold for $150k more, it's not even close."

Eli hems and haws, kind of fake-throws his chips in, pulls them back, finally makes what is a clear and obvious fold. The run the board out, which does include a heart, and Eli gets ridiculously pissed about having folded his Qh2h.

OK, /conversation recreation. C'mon, Eli. Stop limping Qh2h. Stop even considering calling this shove on the flop with your Qh2h. And finally, stop bitching and moaning when the heart turns, which would have paid off your horrific call.

The final hand of the episode and the season did not disappoint. The Unabomber opened the action with a raise to $3100 holding 55, which was called by Viffer holding Qc9c. Viffer then announced  that durrrr was about to squeeze, I assume in order to try and discourage said squeeze (aside: isn't it kind of uncool for Viffer to talk about what durrrr is going to do with many other players left to act?). Durrrr does in fact squeeze, raising to $14k with JTo. Good read, except that The Fat Man wakes up in the small blind with KK and raises to $30k. Too small a re-raise. It gives durrrr information about The Fat Man's hand, and doesn't charge him enough for playing deep in position. It's just asking to get pwnd. Durrrr does indeed call getting 3:1 and they see a frop heads up.

The frop comes down AhTd3h, not the frop you're looking for holding KK. But The Fat Man fires out undeterred, putting in another $30k. Durrrr calls with his middle pair, bringing the pot to $130k. I think here Dwan just wants to play more streets with The Fat Man and see what develops. Dwan had already tried to bluff The Fat Man once unsuccessfully (derty river check/raise with 9-high got called down by K-high), and The Fat Man had just bet him out of an arr-crub frop holding KK with the K of crubs. So he might think that there's some poker being played in this hand, and if that's the case, he's going to end up getting the best of it.

He does indeed get the best of it on the turn, peeling a grrrroosssssss Jd. The Fat Man checks, obviously not comfortable with how the board has run out. The Jd helps lots of hands that are in durrrr's range: JT, AJ, JJ, KQ...really not a good card for The Fat Man. I think durrrr realizes that The Fat Man's checking range includes a lot of hands that are one pair + inside straight, like AK, AQ, KK, and QQ. A big bet might induce a fold from these hands, but a smallish bet sets up a river shove really perfectly. Durrrrr probably isn't too worried about pricing in the flush draws because The Fat Man probably barrels them again, and also because the ace on board is of hearts, and not too many non-ace-high suited hands in The Fat Man's pre-flop cold four-betting range. So durrrr puts in a tasty $46k bet (~1/3 pot), which gets instacalled. 

The river Js fills up durrrr. With $147k left in stacks and $220k left in the pot, Dwan has the perfect stack to shove in once The Fat Man checks. For reasons unbeknowst to me, The Fat Man instacalls. With KK!! The power of Dwan...when you build up a crazy image as Dwan has, you can get 300 bbs of value from second pair while holding a full house. So gross. What a performance this season on HSP by durrrr. If you've been railing the high stakes games recently, you've seen durrrr lose some pretty big pots to Ziigimund at PLO. But he put on quite an exhibition playing Hold 'Em against some of the biggest names in the game in this season of High Stakes Poker.

-BRUECHIPS