POTD #263 After a Battle of the Greenwoods a Battle of the Sams
Grafton vs Greenwood at an Online FT.
Today’s hand comes from an online $2k on PokerStars from 2020 that had a hole cards up replay that I reviewed for Run It Once. You can see the whole FT and listen to my analysis if you are an elite member of Run It Once. If you are not, you should sign up and use code POTD to get a 10% discount. I miss regularly grinding online because it meant you played a lot more final tables and the stakes of any given final table were not so extreme, which meant it was more likely you’d play and execute your best FT strategy, because it was just another FT and not one fraught with importance. Studying ICM outputs and final table outputs are an important way to improve as a poker player, but no amount of studying can capture the feeling of actually playing a lot of FTs, and getting those reps in at lower stakes is very important for when you eventually make a high-stakes FT.
In poker, you’re always thinking about playing your hand, but also playing your range— your literal two cards, and every possible hand you might ever have in a given spot. Some of the trickiest spots that have led to some of my biggest punts occur when your hand wants to do something that your range does not want to do or at least it feels that way. In POTD #262 I wrote about bluffing on the flop, turning more equity on a card that my range wants to bet a lot, but not knowing what to do if I faced a check-raise all-in, panicking and just going all-in. In today’s hand, we’re looking at a similar situation, but from the opposite end of the spectrum. I flopped, if not a great hand, one I was more than happy to stack off. I bet the flop, was called, and I hit the highest-EV turn for my range, but one of the lowest-EV turns for my hand, and did not know how to balance making the best range play vs. making the best play with my hand. Similar to Wednesday’s hand, I wish I had played with a little more finesse.
Pokerstars 2k High Roller Club Final Table
1st 39k, 2nd 28.6k, 3rd 20.6k, 4th 14.8k, 5th 10.7k, 6th 7.7k, 7th 5.5k
I (93k) make it 13.2k UTG/7 with K♣️Q♠️, LrzLzk (125k) folds, Anjeyyy (228k) folds, C Darwin (625k) folds, Wushu (52k) folds, Obina (240k) folds, Sam Grafton (227k) calls in the BB.
Flop (34.65k) Q♥️8♠️3♣️: Grafton checks, I bet 8.663k, he calls.
Turn (51.976k) A♣️: Grafton checks, I bet 30k of my remaining 71k, he calls.
River (111.976k) J♦️: Grafton checks, I check and beat 8♣️7♣️.
