POTD #95 FT Friday: My Big Bluff vs Andrey Shatilov at the Caribbean Poker Party

I was not celebrating afterwards

The 2017 Party Poker Caribbean Poker Classic was one of the most successful weeks I’ve ever had in poker. Don’t believe me? Look at what the late Mike Sexton wrote about my week hours after I won the $5k Main Event for $1,000,000¹

He did it! @SamGreenwoodRIO won the partypokerLIVE MILLIONS Punta Cana for $1m after finishing 3rd in $10k & 2nd in $25k! Truly one of greatest poker achievements ever!! Congrats, Sam!

However, the most memorable hand I played that entire week was a pot I lost. I was the chipleader, but just barely. I covered second in chips by 1.4bbs and third in chips by 3bbs. There were two 13bb stacks in the tournament, but nobody was too short, and I decided to run a three-barrel bluff, putting the BB Andrey Shatilov’s tournament life at risk. He called and I was left with 3bbs, then I promptly tripled up UTG, doubled up from the SB, and got AA into AK, and was back where I started. I quickly went from thinking I had made one of the biggest punts I’d ever made at a high stakes final table to having almost the exact same amount of chips within an orbit. As we learned from the WSOPME, sometimes you can turn 3bbs into a trophy, but the question for today is, was my bluff a necessary but good play that happens sometimes, or could I have avoided punting off most of my stack?

UTG (1.09M) folds, UTG7 (1.87M) folds, LJ (680k) folds, HJ (665k) folds, I’m in the CO (1.94M) and make it 100k with K♥️9♣️, BU (1.195M) folds, SB (1.36M) folds, Andrey Shatilov (1.815M) defends in the BB

Flop (275k) Q♠️5♥️2♣️: Andrey checks, I bet 70k he calls

Turn (415k) 8♣️: He checks, I bet 360k, he calls

River (1.135M) 7♦️: He checks, I have 1.41M and shove for Shatilov’s final 1.285M, he calls with Q♦️J♦️