Poker Hand Matchup: Eddie Blumenthal vs. Aditya Agarwal
Eddie Blumenthal	Win Pre-Flop	Win Post-Flop	Win Post-Turn
Starting Stack: 412,000	40.66 %	80.91 %	29.55 %	Winner!
Aditya Agarwal	Win Pre-Flop	Win Post-Flop	Win Post-Turn
Starting Stack: 1,217,000	58.88 %	16.67 %	70.45 %

Posted On: Aug 15, 2013

Outcome

Preflop, with the blinds at 4,000 and 8,000 and a 1,000 ante, Blumenthal raised to 20,000 from early position, Agarwal reraised to 42,000 from late position, Blumenthal reraised to 84,000, Agarwal reraised to 135,000, and Blumenthal called. On the flop Blumenthal checked, Agarwal bet 105,000, Blumenthal went all-in, and Agarwal called.

Analysis

Accomplished online grinder Agarwal was nearing a 3:1 chip lead over his opponent when Blumenthal decided to get frisky in early position with Seven-high. Let’s say Blumenthal had pocket Jacks instead. Wouldn’t Agarwal’s AK want to see all five cards? Wouldn’t a shove chase pocket Eights and lower away? Did Agarwal hope his opponent would fold for 51,000 more on a pot of 239,000? If Agarwal was not planning on looking to see if the flop brought him a pair and going away or checking if it didn’t why even bother with this unhelpful bet sizing on a five bet instead of moving in. This wasn’t a case where he might be running a deep stack with AK into a covering stack that might have AA or KK preflop. Blumenthal tried to shut down a potential late position reraise steal preflop, and painted himself into a corner. But he proceeded to call the five bet because of the tremendous pot odds, and he caught the perfect flop. Blumenthal submitted a crafty check, and Agarwal submitted a bluff that backfired as it seemed destined to. Agarwal felt priced into the call after his flop bet was met with the all-in check raise, and in spite of the Ace on the turn he could not fade Blumenthal’s redraw to the straight. Agarwal went on to finish in 212th for his second largest live cash to date – $42,990, while Blumenthal finished 175th in the same paygrade.