The hand we’ll be looking at today comes once again from the Hustler Casino Live stream, featuring none other than Ryan Feldman and Dylan Flashner, one of the game regulars.
The game in question is $200/$400, but players are very deep, and Dylan, who is an effective stack, starts with over $160,000 in front of him.
Playing with so deep stacks can lead to some really tricky situations and unusually big pots, which is exactly what happens in this hand.
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Preflop Action
The hand starts with Dylan opening to $2,000 (after one limp) with A♦K♣. Three players make a call before it gets to Ryan in the big blind.
Ryan looks down at J♦9♦ and goes for a squeeze, making it $12,000 to go. This gets rid of the original limper, and Dylan decides to go for a 4-bet with his Ace-King, making it $32,000.
The 4-bet clears out the rest of the field, and when the action gets back to Ryan, he opts to call and see the flop, with $70,400 in the middle.
Preflop Play Analysis
Dylan’s open with AK is super-standard, and with one limper already in, it makes sense to go with a bigger sizing, so there is nothing special to discuss here.
The first interesting decision in this hand is Ryan’s squeeze. His particular hand is probably a better call candidate, especially with a UTG limper to act behind him, who will wake up with the monster some of the time.
That said, with all the dead money in the middle and only one player showing any strength thus far, a squeeze can certainly be justified. Everyone’s fairly deep, so he’s not committing, and in the event of one or two callers, he has a hand that plays pretty well after the flop.
With AK, Dylan is not going anywhere, and the only question is whether he should call or 4-bet. In extremely deep-stacked scenarios, players will often just flat with offsuit Ace-King, but with so many players in the pot who could potentially call behind, he wants to thin the field and get the pot heads-up (if not win it straight up).
The sizing is solid here as well, discouraging any strugglers and also not giving Ryan the best odds, especially since he has to play out of position for the rest of the hand. He still decides to make the call, though, most likely because there is still plenty to play for, and his hand is somewhat disguised.
Flop Action
The flop comes 9♣8♦2♠, and Dylan out-flops Ryan. He plays it in flow, though, checking to the last aggressor.
Ryan goes for a continuation bet of $20,000, and with a top pair and some backdoor options, Ryan wastes very little time before making a call. The pot gets up to $110,400.
Flop Play Analysis
This particular board texture doesn’t hit the 4-bettors range very often. Still, Dylan has all overpairs in his range, so a small continuation bet makes sense.
As for Ryan, his hand is a pure call here. Raising achieves no purpose other than getting rid of hands he’s ahead of, and while there are some turn cards he doesn’t want to see, there are also quite a few that will improve his equity.
Turn Action
The turn brings the 9♥, making the board 9♣8♦2♠9♥. It doesn’t help Dylan in any way, but it significantly improves Ryan’s hand.
At this point, instead of checking, Ryan decides to go for a donk bet and leads out into Dylan for $35,000, which is just over a third of the pot.
Dylan goes over his options, and after some deliberation, he moves all in for a total of $114,000. Ryan calls in two seconds and locks up a pot worth $338,000 as Dylan is drawing dead going to the river.
Turn Play Analysis
The 9♥ on the turn is the perfect card for Ryan, as it pretty much gives him the nuts. Given how this hand was played, it’s hard to come up with any hands in Dylan’s range that he would be losing to.
Realizing this, and not wanting for the action to check through, Ryan decides to lead out. This is a non-standard play but it is a good way to mix things up and confuse your opponents.
This was probably the time to give up for Dylan. It is true that Ryan can use this card to bluff on some of the time, realizing that Dylan has no nines in his range. He could potentially do this with hands like TJ or 67, both of which would be an open-ender on the flop.
However, if Ryan were to take an aggressive line with these types of hands, he’d probably do it on the flop, as he can credibly represent all the sets and two-pair hands (98).
Additionally, if Ryan did have a hand like that, he’d be more likely to move all in as a bluff and realize his full equity instead of betting small and giving himself great odds on the call in the situation where Dylan moves all in.
On top of all this, Dylan’s hand is a bad bluff candidate as he has no outs whatsoever when Ryan does show up with a nine, as was the case here.
All in all, it was an interesting hand, and Ryan would probably get all of Dylan’s chips even if he checked on the turn, as Dylan seemed set on bluffing his way out of this one, but it is also possible that his unusual turn play earned him an extra $100k+.
