POTD #150 Final Table Friday: WCOOP 88 vs Patrick Leonard

I revisist a key hand in my most recent WCOOP win

Most tournament players know the feeling: You raise and someone three-bets small off 15 or 20bbs; you have a pretty good hand, like pocket nines or AQ; you go all-in, you get snapped and you see AA. Of course. How did I fall for something so obvious? What’s wrong with me? The funny thing is, in many of these spots, you are supposed to run into AA a lot. If your opponent three-bets to 5 of their 15bbs, when you four-bet shove, you’re risking 13bbs to steal 9.5bbs and will have equity when called. If they’re folding to a shove more than 25% of the time, your bluff shoves are likely printing. The math behind four-bet shoving when you can generate a reasonable amount of folds is sound, but consistently accessing the rational part of your brain to make the decisions can be tough.

“Most of the time my opponent has KK+” and “it’s still profitable for me to bluff shove” are competing impulses, but both can be true. Some players recognize that the sensation of shoving into the nuts at a very high frequency is not a very fun thing to feel, and try to exploit that fear by constantly three-bet bluffing and representing AA. This is especially true when under ICM pressure and at final tables, where the solver-approved way to play AA is to play the click-it-back game in spots whereas in a cash game you often slowplay and just call. Today’s hand is one from a series I made for Run It Once where I review the FT of WCOOP-88 with one of my opponents at the final table Patrick “Pads” Leonard . I start the hand by making a standard value raise and Pads keeps representing KK+. As I was playing the hand, I didn’t feel like a non-believer, I felt like a believer in math. “Well, I can’t fold preflop. Well, it’s only quarter pot. Well, I need to call with something.” Next thing you know, I had given Pads the full double and relinquished my chip lead.

Run It Once Video ( hand starts at 31:57)

If you cannot watch the above video, you can do so by subscribing to Run It Once. Use code: POTD for 10% off

2023 WCOOP-88 H $3,150 NLHE
3rd: $38,534.21, 2nd: $49,862.43, 1st: $64,520.95. There is a 1/8th of a BB ante.

kZhh (30.1BBs) folds on the button, Pads (25bbs) completes the SB, I (72.1BB) make it 2.8bbs with A♠️T♦️, Pads makes it 7bbs, I call.

Flop (14.375BBs) 5♦️5♥️9♠️ : Pads bets 25% (~3.59BBs), I call.

Turn (21.5625BBs) J♥️: Pads bets 25% (~5.39BBs), I call.

River (32.34375BBs) T♠️: Pads shoves 9.03bbs, I call and lose to K♦️K♣️