Poker Hand Matchup: Fabian Quoss vs. Dan Shak
Dan Shak	Win Pre-Flop	Win Post-Flop	Win Post-Turn
Starting Stack: 2,695,000	65.63 %	82.53 %	15.91 %
Fabian Quoss	Win Pre-Flop	Win Post-Flop	Win Post-Turn
Starting Stack: 11,300,000	33.24 %	17.47 %	84.09 %	Winner!

Posted On: Jan 09, 2014

Outcome

Preflop, final table, heads-up, with the blinds at 100,000 and 200,000 and a 20,000 ante, Quoss called from the button, and Shak checked. On the flop Shak checked, Quoss bet 200,000, and Shak called. On the turn Shak checked, Quoss bet 425,000, Shak went all-in, and Quoss called.

Analysis

With just 13 big blinds left in his stack, Shak’s J-10 might have qualified for a shove here against a button limp. It stands to reason that Quoss would have probably set him all-in with any pocket pair, or Ace or King high. If Shak held 10 big blinds or lower, moving in preflop would have definitely been the right play. His stack did allow some slight room to check here as he did however, but once the flop brought him middle pair it was time to abandon caution. Perhaps his checks were motivated not by caution though, and he was so confident in his second pair that he wanted to induce bets from an opponent who had him heavily outchipped and might be inclined to bluff at the pot. Whether it was an excess of caution or a desire to induce bluffs that inspired Shak’s check call on the flop, either way it proved to be his undoing as he got very unlucky on the turn where Quoss caught a miracle gutterball. The Nine also gave Shak an open ended straight draw, and once he moved all in he discovered he would need to fill that draw with a King or the Eight to survive. Shak missed, but continued his impressive high roller streak, winning $1,178,980 for his runner up finish. Quoss started 2014 off nicely with the title and $1,629,940.