High Stakes Poker: My Laydown Versus Todd Brunson

If you are still unaware of High Stakes Poker, which airs on GSN, you are missing out on the best poker show on television, bar none. The play is very sophisticated, the stacks are deep, and the table talk can be pretty entertaining.

I've played in both seasons one and two, and look forward to filming season three shortly. During the first two seasons, I've played some rather interesting hands. The following hand came up against Todd Brunson and Sammy Farha:

With the blinds at $300-$600 and a $100 ante, Todd raised from late position to $1,600. Sammy called from the small blind with the K 5, and I defended my big blind with the A 9.

The flop came J 5 5 and Sammy decided to slow-play his trip fives and checked. I checked to Todd, and he also checked.

The turn looked like a "gin card" for me, the 9. This is where things got interesting. With just $5,600 in the pot, Sammy decided to hugely overbet it, betting $10,000. I thought about raising, but decided it would be better to just call the $10,000.

To my surprise, Todd also called the $10,000 bet from Sammy. Right then and there, alarm bells went off in my head, and I didn't know whether I even wanted to hit the flush. With Todd making the overcall, I had to be very suspicious of what he may have. After all, I had the A so he couldn't be drawing to the flush; it looked more like he might be slow-playing a monster hand.

The river brought the Q and Sammy checked in disgust. Now, I had planned on betting the river if I hit my hand, but since my suspicions were so strong that Todd had a made hand already, I decided to check and possibly save a bet.

At this point, there was now $35,600 in the pot and Todd bet $21,000. His bet size screamed of a value bet, and combined with his overcall on the turn, I had a tough decision to make.

After a couple of minutes, I decided to "play good," and mucked the nut flush. Mike "The Mouth" Matusow asked Todd to show a bluff, and Todd decided to show one card, the 8!

Wow! I later found out after watching the show that Todd had the J 8 - a hand I never could have put him on in that situation.

After analyzing the hand, and this may be hard for you to believe, I'm still OK with my laydown. If you never try to play "above the rim," you'll certainly never get bluffed, but you'll be calling far more often than you should.

What won Todd the pot was the fact that I didn't think he would overcall such a large bet on the turn with such a weak hand.

Todd certainly misread the hand on the turn. He may have been hoping that Sammy was bluffing, and that I had either a draw or a pair of nines - and he was half-right.

I didn't think Todd would bet the K on the river, as that would be too risky. He certainly wasn't betting trips on the river, either.

Most of the hands I could put him on (that I could beat), he would check the river - except one.

Now, for him to have that one hand I could beat, he also had to have decided to check the flop with top pair on a relatively dangerous board. So many things had to come together just perfectly for me to make that laydown, and by all indications, Todd played the hand more like a full house than J-8!

If Todd has a hand like J-J, 9-9, or 5-5, he may just check that flop. On the turn, with Sammy betting and me calling, he'd have no incentive to run us off the hand. He'd be better off letting me draw dead, and possibly trapping either Sammy or me for a big bet on the river.

As it turned out, Todd needed to hit a jack to win the pot, or have a spade roll off and me fold the nut flush! It just didn't seem to be as likely a scenario as Todd having the hand made already.

If you watched the show, you saw how much time I spent analyzing the hand. I was extremely confident that I made an excellent play. Despite the fact that my read was wrong, I still don't think my laydown was all that bad in the long run. I think far more often than not, I would have been right. Todd just happened to play one hand goofy against me and it paid off handsomely. Nice hand, Todd.

You can watch Daniel's video blog or play poker with him at www.fullcontactpoker.com.