The game and its members remain the same as High Stakes Poker #1.
History: Greenstein, who appears to be sitting with a few hundred thousand, has played no major pots. Eastgate is $100,000 up after winning a nice pot off Sahamies earlier in the session with J-T suited. He has circa $500,000 in front of him. Dwan has remained the most active player at the table. It recently emerged that he had three-bet Negreanu preflop with J-7 suited.
Greenstein (UTG) is chatting as he looks down at Ac-Ah.
Without breaking his smile, he raises to $2,500.
The whole table calls.
What should Greenstein have raised?
Channing says:
“This hand puts Greenstein in a tricky spot. The players are all playing very deep stacked and are looking to see flops and stack someone. Greenstein doesn't want to break from his chat and give away the strength of his hand. The problem is that his standard raise disguises the hand well, but also is inevitably going to attract much action. A way bigger raise would have protected his hand allowing him to see the flop with less opponents, but may have given away a lot of information. Given the way the game is playing I might have limped and then reraised with the aces.”
Colclough says:
“$2,525.”
Flop: 2c-Td-2s
Greenstein bets $10,000
Dwan (UTG+1) raises to $37,300
Eastgate (button) calls
Greenstein calls
Turn: 7d
Eastgate checks
What would your move be if you were Greenstein?
Channing says:
“Having got into a multiway pot, Greenstein has seen this odd flop. This flop is quite unlikely to have connected given that it contains a pair, that pair is deuces and no flush or straight draws are present. Greenstein may feel that he's up against at least two pocket pairs and the turn could easily give someone a mystery full house so, for that reason, he bets. I might just check here to control the pot size and because this is the kind of flop where the preflop raiser can easily be bluffed out of the pot.
Having bet $10,000, I might not be too worried about the super aggressive Dwan raising me. I would, however, wonder what Eastgate could have to cold call the $37,000 here. I guess I'd put him on a pair and call behind, not exactly loving my life. The seven on the turn is just the kind of middly card that might have given someone their surprise full house. If I intend to let Dwan bet and bluff at the pot then I must be prepared to call. If I'm thinking I'm likely to fold when he bets big then I might want to bet out here. If I bet out it makes it way harder for Dwan to raise on a bluff here. If I'm definitely calling anyway then I just check and call all the way, but if I'm folding then my bet is around $75,000, and if he sets me in, I give up.
I suspect that in this multi-way pot I don't make that flop bet, though, and the pot is therefore smaller at this stage making my decisions easier and leaving plenty of chips in my stack for the decisions on later streets to still be a factor.”
Colclough says:
“I’d have snap-folded to a reraise called by another opponent on the flop. I play too tight but $37,300 buys an awful lot of Guinness. However, now I’ve made the key decision on the flop (neither has got a deuce), I’m not going change my mind now. Check-raise all in… and just pray that the case ace appears.
I’m missing something. Was the $10,000 a pathetic, weak donk bet looking for a reraise move from someone holding fresh air? Was Greenstein trying to induce a move here? In an eight -handed pot? Surely the $10,000 bet was to assess whether someone limped with a stray deuce. He found out and now he passes. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, I am outta here. Muck those aces.”
Greenstein checks
Dwan bets $104,200
Eastgate folds
What would your move be if you were Greenstein?
Channing says:
“Tricky one. I'm guessing Greenstein folded and Dwan bluffed him. It's also another hand that highlights the importance of position and the difficulties of taking on world class players without it.”
Colclough says:
“Call for more chips, I’m gonna need them after murdering my stack playing like a complete donkey.”
Dave Colclough is a friend of Black Belt Poker and is a signed member with a profile page.