Hand Review: Picking Off a Huge Bluff With Blockers
Covering live poker tournaments for a living affords me the opportunity to see countless thousands of hands played out, many of which offer interesting and potentially valuable insights into how players — both amateurs and professionals — play the game. In this ongoing series, I'll highlight hands I've seen at the tournaments I've covered and see if we can glean anything useful from them.
As a special note today, if my count is accurate — a very big if considering my record-keeping — then this is my 100th hand review for the site. That's a lot of hands! Interesting hands are played all of the time in poker, so this series is rarely lacking for content.
If you've stuck around and kept reading my thoughts on hands over the years, thanks for your readership. I may not be one of the world's best, but I do think I have a decent perspective on the game after spending thousands of hours playing and probably thousands more reporting. Hope you stick around for the next 100.
The Scene
It's late in World Poker Tour Borgata Poker Open $3,500 Main Event, with just 18 players remaining from a field of 1,156. The big money is near.
Experienced pros David Prociak and Ryan D'Angelo are among those remaining, with each player having a sizable stack around 60 big blinds effective, Prociak covering. The tables are playing short-handed since they're eight-max, with blinds and antes of 20,000/40,000/40,000.
The Action
D'Angelo opened to 90,000 in the cutoff and Prociak made it 285,000 in the big blind. D'Angelo peeled, bringing an 8♠3♠9♦ flop. Prociak bet 260,000 and D'Angelo called. On the 2♦ turn, Prociak checked. D'Angelo bet 340,000 and Prociak called.
The river was the 10♦ and Prociak shoved all in, setting D'Angelo at risk for 1,550,000. After several minutes in the tank, D'Angelo called, and his Q♥Q♦ was a winner against A♥5♦.
Concept and Analysis
This was a fun hand that caught my eye while following the updates on WPT.com. It's worth looking at as an example of how you can blockers to make call/fold decisions on the river.
D'Angelo's first decision of note here comes preflop, when he just calls a three-bet holding queens. Four-betting and getting stacks in would certainly be reasonable in a six-handed game against aggressive regulars, but calling has some merit, too, as it strengthens your calling range — making you tougher to barrel against postflop — and it also lets you play a pot deep and in position with a hand that flops pretty well.
He does get a good flop when 8♠3♠9♦ arrives, and Prociak comes out with a small continuation bet.
D'Angelo has the option of raising now or just calling, and I think either would be reasonable. If you want to have a bluff-raising range with some draws on this board, then raising a hand like queens makes sense since you need some strong hands to balance.
If your preference is to call in position with draws and floats, then I don't mind calling, either. It would probably be a little better to flat with slow played kings or aces, since those hands are less vulnerable to overcards. Queens can still work, it's just a little riskier.
On the 2♦ turn, Prociak checks and D'Angelo bets. I think I like barreling here a little more if I'm Prociak, just because his hand is so weak and he did pick up some equity with a wheel draw.
Once he does check, he faces a small bet from D'Angelo, 340,000 into about 1.1 million. While the bet is small and Prociak likely has some outs, I am not a fan of continuing with a call here. It's just going to be a guessing game on the river, acting first against an experienced opponent. It's possible ace-high is good on a board like this, and Prociak appeared to have a plan to win the pot on some rivers, so you can see his reasoning for calling here. I just think it's a very difficult spot to get in with a hand this weak.
In any case, the 10♦ river does cause Prociak to execute his plan as he bluffs all in. I think if you get to the river with this hand, then bluffing is reasonable because he's at the bottom of his range, holds a diamond in his hand to block some flushes, and he probably can't win the pot any other way.
The problem is, Prociak has run into one of the best bluff-catching hands. D'Angelo really has it all in this spot when it comes to blocker value. He has two queens in his hand, so he's got two blockers to the nut straight. He has no spades in his hand, so Prociak's a little more likely to have missed spades. He also has a diamond in his hand, blocking some flushes that can be shoved for value.
All in all, I think D'Angelo has a pretty clear call from a theory standpoint. Of course, in reality, it's a little tougher to click call for your tournament life in the late stages of a huge event.
Fortunately for D'Angelo, he did come to the correct decision after some thought, vaulting himself into the chip lead and giving himself a great chance at a $600K payday. It wouldn't work out as he'd bust in 11th, but he put himself in good position with this well-played hand.
