POTD #86 Monte Carlo Monday 2019 Main Event vs Manig Loeser

Just another Manig Monday

Okay, I’ll be honest, I am running out of Monte Carlo hands to write about. The chip lead pot I played vs. Vladimir “Gambledore” “Santa Claus” Korzinin will be coming soon, but I need to run the appropriate sims and actually write about the hand, and I did not get it done in time for this week. That means, unless I remember a bigger punt from a tournament that I played in Monaco in the next week, then POTD #91¹ will be about my A5s shove vs Vladimir Korzinin at the FT of Triton Monaco 2024. Maybe when I write about the hand this time I’ll river a flush.

It is the policy of POTD to pair hands I write about that are played by other people with hands I myself have played that are conceptually similar. Normally, I write about the hands played by other people first and publish my response later; however, since I want to keep this Monte Carlo Monday conceit going, I will be pairing this hand with Wednesday’s hand, Chance’s Kornuth’s bustout hand from the WSOP ME. In both hands, we have pocket pairs out of position in a three-bet pot and go with our live reads. I like this pairing of hands because it upends expectations. I make a bad solver play and a good live read, and Chance makes a good solver play and a bad live read. Tune in Wednesday to read my thoughts on what Chance could have done differently, but for now I’ll set the scene for today’s hand.

EPT Monaco 2019 was going well for me. I came third in the 100k, which normally would be my biggest cash of the series, but it was a relatively small €100k, and I had 60xed my stack in the Main Event. That meant, with 15 people remaining, I was above average and solidly in the hunt to top my SHR cash of slightly more than €700k and, more importantly, win an EPT Main Event and €800k.

2019 EPT €5,300 Main Event. 15 Remain. Level 25 20k/40k/40k (SB/BB/BBA)

Pokernews Update

This hand was played on stream, but did not make the final cut of the TV show Pokerstars made of the 2019 Main Event and I was unable to locate a clip of the hand

I (1.85M) make it 80k UTG8 with 5♦️5♣️ it folds to Manig Loeser (4.03M) in the LJ who makes it 260k, it folds back to me and I call.

Flop (620k) 9♥️8♠️2♠️: I check, Manig bets 290k, I call
Turn (1.2M) J♣️: I check, Manig checks
River (1.2M) 3♣️: I check, Manig checks and wins with A♣️J♥️