Andrew Robl Clashes With Santhosh in a Million Dollar Pot

A few days back, we witnessed the largest pot ever played on the High Stakes Poker Show. Although we’ve covered that story already, the hand itself deserves a closer look, even if it was a bit of a cooler.

For those of you who missed it, the hand in question involved the high stakes legend Andrew Robl and Santhosh Suvarna, the man who captivated the poker public with his extremely aggressive (albeit not always strategically sound) approach to the game.

The blinds are $1,000/$2,000, with Santhosh posting the $4,000 straddle. He is also the effective stack with $490,000 behind to start the hand.

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Preflop Action

The action begins with Andrew Robl in the small blind, who, after everyone folds to him, raises to $16,000 with 5♣4♣.

Santhosh wakes up with a legitimate hand in the straddle, looking down at A♣K♥, and goes for a 3-bet of $54,000. After a short think, Robl throws in the call, creating the pot of $112,000 going to the flop.

Preflop Play Analysis

When the action folds to Robl, he has a pretty standard open with suited connectors. The 4x sizing may seem on the larger side, but they’re playing very deep. Plus, knowing he’ll be out of position for the rest of the hand, he wouldn’t mind just winning the pot right there (although unlikely against Santhosh).

Santhosh finds a premium in the straddle, and AK is a 3-bet 100% of the time here. The sizing seems fine as well, but given Suvarna’s aggressive image, he may have tried going bigger as well.

For Robl, against an aggressive opponent and with a hand like 5♣4♣, this is an easy call. He’s getting great implied odds, as he can be pretty confident Santhosh will continue barreling across a variety of boards.

The only drawback is that he’ll be out of position, so that makes it less appealing, as his opponent will have much more ability to control the pot and the action.

Flop Action

The flop comes an absolute miracle for Robl as the dealer spreads 4♠4♦2♠. He plays it in flow and checks to Santhosh, who bets $45,000. Andrew makes the call and the pot balloons to $202,000.

Flop Analysis

Andrew gets what you might call the gin flop as he makes the trips. To make things even better, this board favors the preflop 3-bettor, as Robl won’t connect with it too often.

Santhosh has all the over-pairs here, and even hands like A-K and A-Q stand to be good a fair percentage of the time. So, Robl checks, as he would do with his pretty much entire range, allowing Suvarna to do his bidding.

For Santhosh, this is an easy c-bet. As mentioned, he has a range advantage here, and with some pressure, he can even get Robl to fold hands like smaller pocket pairs by the river.

Andrew has very little reason to do anything other than call Suvarna’s $45,000 bet. By doing so, he’s keeping all his bluffs in and makes it very hard for his opponent to ever think that a hand like pocket kings or pocket queens might be behind.

Turn Action

The turn is an interesting card as it comes the K♦, making the board 4♠4♦2♠K♦ and improving Santhosh to a top pair with the best kicker. Andrew checks once again, and this time Suvarna checks behind.

Turn Analysis

The K♦ doesn’t change anything about Robl’s hand (unless his opponent had KK specifically). It would be a very strange card to take a betting lead on, as it certainly favors to 3-bettor, so Andrew does the only thing that makes sense and checks once again.

Santhosh can continue barreling on this card to protect himself against hands like flush draws, especially since he’s not holding any spades. This makes it likelier that Andrew could be on a draw.

However, he opts for a less aggressive route this time around. He now has a hand that can easily call a bet on almost any river and beat all Robl’s bluffs. In the rare instance he’s behind against a hand like the one Andrew has or pocket deuces, he won’t lose as much.

River Action

The final card off the deck is the K♠, completing the board of 4♠4♦2♠K♦K♠. Both players now have trips, but Suvarna is now the one in the driver’s seat.

Robl is first to act and he bets out for $300,000 into the $202,000 pot. Santhosh takes a few moments before moving all-in for $395,000 in total and Robl makes the call for the remaining $95,000 for the final pot of $992,000 – just $8,000 short of a cool million.

River Play Analysis

The river card is certainly not a complete blank, but it improves a very narrow part of the opponent’s range, and with the action checking through on the turn, Robl decides to go for value.

He chooses a big sizing, betting 1.5 times the pot, which is not a standard play. However, he’s played with Santhosh before, and he probably believes that he can get called by hands like pocket aces, queens, and maybe jacks.

It is certainly an exploitative play based on the situation and the opponent and a higher variance approach, but there is nothing wrong with that, as long as you can handle the swings – and Andrew certainly can.

Santhosh ended up rivering the virtual nuts, so his decision is easy. He moves in, and Robl has to call an extra $95,000 to win a pot of almost a million, getting the pot odds of over 9 to 1.

Andrew’s expression after the all-in says it all. He pretty much knows he’s beat, but getting such good pot odds, he simply can’t find a fold, and it’s hard to fault him for it.

If there is one player that can still turn up with a hand that Robl can beat, Santhosh is that player, so getting those odds, he simply can’t get away.