POTD #45 Final Table Friday: 2019 Triton London Main Event 5th Pair with 5 Left

On the fifth day of the week

Premium subscriber and protagonist of POTD #44 Xuan Liu talked about being self-conscious about playing a hand that ends up on a highlight reel. I have had my share of highlight-reel hands, which I’ve mostly avoided writing about on POTD as they’re not germane to the blog, but a beautiful thing about poker is the line between a highlight-reel hand and lowlight-reel hand is razor-thin. When you’re right, your reads are sharp, your chakras are aligned, you’re playing above the rim. When you’re wrong, you’re a punter.

During Triton London 2019, I stacked Mike Watson in a hand that I will write about in the future, and after the hand Sosia Jiang complimented my play and called me a “maestro.” I’ll never turn down a compliment, but during and after the hand I was unsure if I played it well. When I looked it up, I saw that I had missed a pure shove on the turn that was difficult, but not impossible, to find. Missing that pure play allowed me to check-call the river and add a clip to my highlight reel. When others make unconventional plays, you cannot always get into their head. Did they have a live read? Were they consciously exploiting their opponent? Was it a solver-approved play? In today’s hand, I can tell you my big call down looks cool and doesn’t lose that much EV, but in reality I misunderstood what my strategy in this spot should look like. Read about it below and tell me what clip package this hand belongs in.

5 Handed in the Triton London Main Event

Ben Heath (5.2M) folds, Paul Phua (10.9M) folds, Michael Soyza (7.3M) folds, I (2.7M) have Q♠️3♥️ in the SB and complete, Wai Kin (5.9M) checks in the BB

Flop 6♠️4♦️3♠️ (600k): I check, Wai Kin bets 300k, I call

Turn A♥️ (1.2M): I check, Wai Kin bets 600k, I call

River 8♠️ (2.4M): I check, Wai Kin checks, I win