Poker Strategy -- Jonathan Duhamel Analyzes Key WSOP Double-Up

At 22 years old, Jonathan Duhamel is the youngest member of the 2010 World Series of Poker main event November Nine. With nearly 66 million in chips, Duhamel is the far-and-away chip leader and the odds-on favorite to take down the title.

The Montreal, Canada, native secured most of those chips with a monster pot against Matt Affleck, but he wouldn’t have even been in a position to bust Affleck had he not doubled up earlier in the day against Robert Pisano.

Here, Duhamel breaks down how he was able to get maximum value from a turned straight against top pair.

The Hand

WSOP Main Event	Blinds/Antes	60,000-120,000 with a 15,000 ante
Players	Jonathan Duhamel	Robert Pisano
Chip Count	8.865 million	9.125 million
Hand	5 4	A K

Duy Le raised to 305,000 on the button, and Jonathan Duhamel reraised to 865,000 from the small blind. Robert Pisano flat-called from the big blind, and Le called, as well.

The three players saw a flop of 7 3 2, and Duhamel checked. Pisano bet 1.65 million and Le folded. Duhamel called, and the A hit the turn.

Duhamel then led for 1.875 million, and after a minute of thought, Pisano moved all in over the top for 4.72 million more. Duhamel called off his last 4.46 million with 5 4 for the wheel, and Pisano was drawing dead with the A K for top pair, top kicker.

The river was the 6, and Duhamel doubled up to over 18.7 million. Pisano was left crippled with just 260,000.

The Interview

Julio Rodriguez: You three-bet with a small, suited connector out of the blinds. Were you just trying to pick on Le’s button raise to take it down right there?

Jonathan Duhamel: Yeah, for sure. He’s going to be raising the majority of his buttons when it is folded to him, so my initial plan was to just be able to take it down preflop.

JR: Then Robert Pisano called out of the big blind.

JD: Yeah, that concerned me. Based on that call, my first read was that he had a pocket pair, somewhere between eights and jacks.

JR: You flopped an open-ended straight draw. Why not fire out a continuation-bet, especially since you were the preflop aggressor?

JD: Well, I could continuation-bet, but there’s not a lot on that flop that they’ll give me credit for. Not only that, but if the big blind has what I think he has, then he’s not going to be folding to any of my bets. Even worse, if I bet, then he could make a big raise to push me off of my draw.

I decided to check, hoping that they would check behind me. The big blind instead decided to bet, but it was small enough that I thought I had good implied odds if I hit. My other option was to check-raise the flop, but I felt that if he had the higher end of his range, say jacks, he would definitely call. That would put me in a tough situation if I miss on the turn, since I’m out of position.

JR: The turn was an ace, giving you the wheel. Why all of a sudden did you decide to bet?

JD: At this point, I’m still putting him on the same type of hand as before. Even though the ace has made my straight, it might hurt my chances of getting any more value, since it could just as easily scare him from betting. If I check, then he is almost certainly going to check behind a hand like tens or jacks. So I thought my best chance for value was to make a small bet on the turn that kind of looks like a blocker bet, and then make another small bet on the river. At least, that’s what I thought would happen.

JR: Then he surprised you by moving all in. What did you think he was holding at that point?

JD: To be honest, I didn’t even have time to think about what he was pushing all in with. I guess it ran through my mind that he could have a set of sevens, but all I knew is that I had the nuts, so it didn’t matter. It was nice to see him drawing dead, though.

JR: Putting yourself in his place, what do you think went wrong with this hand?

JD: I think that his biggest mistake was not four-betting preflop, but let’s assume that he does decide to just call. I actually don’t mind that he led the flop, but on the turn, I think you have to just call. The reason I say that is because if I’m bluffing, then I’m probably going to bluff the river, as well, so he’s not losing much value when he’s ahead, but he’s minimizing his losses when he’s behind. Who knows? A scare card may hit the river and he’ll be able to make a good fold and save those chips.

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