POTD #176 Monte Carlo Monday: One Cool Trick You Can Only Find on POTD

And for POTD Subscribers a cheap trick at only $10/month

I spent much of last week writing about unusual leads that, at times, might not add much EV to your game, but show off cool tricks you learned in the lab. There is an aesthetic reason that leads and small bets and raises tend to show that someone is a good poker player. They are the poker equivalent of a basketball player or soccer player with elite dribbling skills, all these little motions that end up adding up to something greater than the sum of their parts. Lots of small bets adding up to something larger in one cool play can showcase expertise, but another unusual play that can showcase expertise is a simple one— just going all-in. The button raises and you have 30bbs with K7o in the BB? Just go all-in (as the solver does ~40% of the time). You have the nut flush with 5x pot to play on the river? All-in. 100 blinds deep in a three-bet pot and the flop is JTx? It’s simple: go all-in.

It makes sense that these plays would attract the most attention. People tend to be drawn to extremes and enticed by something out of the ordinary. Betting half pot on paired boards in three-bet pots is a recent development at high-stakes NLHE, but you need to be really in the weeds to appreciate the difference between betting half pot and third pot. Even the casual poker observer can be shocked by a 2x pot all-in or a 1bb lead. Last week, I wrote about spots where I missed some small bets, because I was unsure how to proceed. Today is about a hand where I found a big bet that was almost close to being the right play, but I missed some key details that cost me winning a little more money.

Triton Poker Monte-Carlo 2023 - Event #3 $125K NLH Main Event
We are ITM 21 left. 23/135 Cashed. (20k/40k/40k) (SB/BB/BBA) 250k Starting Stack

It folds to me (1.105M) on the BTN with A♣️6♠️ and I make it 80k, Orpen Kisacikoglu (790k) folds SB, Christoph Vogelsang (450k) calls in the BB.

Flop (220k) A♦️K♥️J♥️: Cristoph checks, I shove for his final 370k, he folds.