Poker Strategy -- Dwan and Negreanu Discuss Hands on PAD

Last week, NBC aired the the second week of Poker After Dark’s cash game finale, and the viewers got to watch the effects that $100,000 flips had on some of the greatest players in the game.

Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Gus Hansen, and Phil Ivey redrew seats and sat back down for more cash game session. Going into this week, the two big winners were Antonius and Hansen because they were the two who won the $100,000 flips. The players put in $100,000 into the pot before the cards are dealt and the winner with the best hand after the board is run out, takes the pot. Antonius won one flip, while Hansen won two.

“What that does is, it gets a couple people comfortable in winner where, you know, they can be a little more patient and conservative as far as their psyche is concerned and a couple of guys who are going to have to deal with extra adversity being stuck two-or-three hundred thousand dollars. I’m one of those guys.”

In Poker After Dark‘s Directer’s Cut episode, the players analyze the big hands of the week.

The Game

Stakes: $300-$600 with a $100 ante
Game: No-limit holod’em

Preflop: Ivey limps with 8 6 as does Antonius with A 8 and Negreanu with A Q. Dwan raises to $5,200 with 3 3 from the small blind. Hansen folds his big blind, and Ivey also folds. Antonius and Negreanu call. The pot is now $14,400.

Daniel Negreanu: Right around that point of the game, things were starting to heat up just a little bit on the poker side. The props and the gambling got people a little frisky. A couple people just called the bet and with the A-Q and with having a really aggressive player like Durrrr in the blind, I decided to just call. It’s not that great a hand anyway, and if someone reraises me, I’ll just have to fold it._

Flop Action: The flop comes A K 9. Dwan bets $12,700 and Antonius calls. Negreanu raises to $40,700. Antonius went all in for $106,900 and Negreanu called. The pot is now $243,900.

DN: I had the Ace of clubs in my hand, so that gave me a three-card flush. Durrrr went ahead and bet out $11,000-and change. Patrik called, and I didn’t think Patrik had A-K or A-9, and I was pretty confident Durrrr was making a move and would fold if I raised so I tried to make it look like maybe I had flush draw or something. I called the bet and raised it another $28,000.

Patrik thought about it for a little bit and ultimately decided that maybe I had flush draw so he put it all in. I called of course. I know I have way the best hand, but I have no problem lowering variance in spots like that so I said, “Do you want to run it twice?” He said, “Sure.”

Turn and River Action: On the first run, the board ran out A K 9 K 8. On the second run, the board ran out A K 9 2 7. Negreanu won the entire pot of $243,900.

DN: That was a key pot for me, to get me ahead in the poker, and I was losing a bit in the poker because of a hand with Phil Ivey.

Shortly after this hand, four of the players, Ivey, Negreanu, Hansen, and Dwan with Ivey taking half his action, flipped one more time for $100,000. Luckily being dealt pocket queens, Dwan took down the flip. Shortley after, Hansen cashed out and was replaced by David Peat.

Preflop Action: Ivey raises to $2,000 with 8 7 from under the gun. Antonius calls with 6 4. Dwan calls with A J from the small blind. The pot is now $7,200.

Flop Action: The flop is 3 2 2. Dwan bets $5,700. Ivey folds and Antonius calls. The pot is now $18,600.

Tom Dwan: Alright, on the flop, my hand figures to the best a decent amount of the time and when it’s not, it plays pretty well to lead out because I end up getting value when I hit, sometimes I get better hands to fold, sometimes I get worse hands that are draws to call. And I end up making my opponents make a mistake because [when I hit] it just doesn’t seem like I would have an ace or a jack in my hand very often.

Turn Action: The turn is the 7. The board now reads 3 2 2 7. Dwan bet $16,300, and Antonius calls. The pot is now $51,200.

TD: If Phil Ivey had called [the flop bet], I might have shut down since he was the preflop raiser, but when Patrik called I felt like firing a turn-barrel on a lot of cards, and obviously a seven being one of them. So I bet the turn also and Patrik called, so I was prety unhappy. I probably would have given up a lot on at least half of the rivers left in the deck, depending on the way he looked and acted and stuff.

River Action: The river is the J. The board now reads 3 2 2 7 J. Dwan bets $43,700, and Antonius raised to $135,000. Dwan called and wont he pot of $321,200.

TD: Then the beautiful offsuit jack came off and I was super happy to bet $43,000 and ready to win a nice $160,000 pot. I saw Patrik throw chips in, and I was pretty happy and looked up and then saw it was $150,000 instead of the $43,000 I bet. To say the least, I was really unhappy.

Patrik’s raising range in the spot is just very, very well balanced. Generally, I don’t have a profitable call with just a one-pair hand versus his range. For some dumb reasons, I felt like his range was swayed to where he was bluffing just slightly more than normal. I was extremely unhappy about it, but I threw in the chips and prayed he would say nice call or something along those lines. Luckily he did. I didn’t really have much of a read. I had a bunch of different ones that I was not really sure of that added up to me thinking I was beat a lot but barely enough where I should still be calling. Luckily I ended up winning the hand.

A lot of times in spots like that you’ll end up having a pretty solid read where an opponent will raise a river and you’ll be planning of folding and by the time you throw the chips in, you’re super sure that you’re winning a huge amount of the time. Unfortunately, Patrik is just a very,very good player and doesn’t give away much in any spots. He balances his ranges pretty well and in a spot like that, it’s pretty brutal because he’s very good at making it tough on you when you have a hand like I had. So against a lot of players in that spot, I’d end up making a fold I was very confident about, or end up making a call I was very confident about. Against Patrik, this time, and most other times, I was really unahppy, and just had a very slight feeling and luckily I happened to be right. I don’t expected to be right that often.

Poker After Dark airs every week on NBC on weeknights at 2:05 a.m. and ends with a special Director’s Cut episode on Saturday night at 1 a.m. Find more Poker On TV listings under Poker Tools on the homepage.

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