Jonathan Little Hand of the Week: Rampage Poker Butts Heads With Garrett Adelstein

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Today, I’ll look at another hand played by one of my favorite players, a popular poker streamer, Rampage Poker. Rampage is back to his old tricks, trying to pull off a big bluff, this time around against none other than Garrett Adelstein.

The hand took place on the Hustler Live Stream, and there is a $500 live straddle in play. Rampage has $126,000 in front of him, and he’s the effective stack.

The action starts with Rampage raising it up to $1,300 from the button with 5♥4♥. Garrett in the big blind looks down at 10♠9♠ and goes for a 3-bet of $5,200.

When you’re in the big blind and not closing the action because there is a straddle, you should usually 3-bet or fold, so Garrett’s play in this spot makes perfect sense.

Rampage decides to make the call in position, and given how deep they are, this is a perfectly reasonable play with a hand that can potentially flop big.

The Flop

There is $11,250 in the pot and the flop comes J♦10♥8♦. Garrett decides to check instead of c-betting, which is another reasonable decision as this is the board that should connect pretty well with Rampage’s range.

The action is on Rampage, and the question is, what should he do? Should he bluff with his 5-high?

The problem is, Garret is a world-class player, and he’ll have a lot of check-calls in his range in this spot, especially if he thinks his opponent is capable of bluffing. So, in that light, the answer is probably no. Rampage should check back and see the turn.

However, Rampage decides to bet out for $6,500, and Adelstein has an easy call here.

The Turn

With the pot of just over $24,000, the turn brings 7♥, giving Garrett a straight and Rampage a backdoor flush draw.

Garrett checks once again, and, in this scenario, Rampage should definitely go for a bet. His range will have a lot of hands that will make a straight on this turn.

Image courtesy of PokerGO

Rampage does bet, for $16,000 this time, and Adelstein decides to play his hand slow and just call once again. I love the check-call by Garrett, taking some risk but giving Rampage a chance to bluff away on many rivers.

The River

The final card comes a board-pairing 10♣. Rampage misses his flush draw, and he is left with 5-high. Garrett checks to him for one final time.

Rampage goes for it, betting $45,000 into the $56,000 pot. I believe that, when using this bet size on the river, Rampage should have hands that block full houses, i.e., holding one of the cards on the board.

With this particular hand, 5♥4♥, I like the half-pot bet size more as we don’t have any blockers.

That said, when you get to the river with 5-high, you do want to go for a bluff, especially when you’re not blocking your opponent’s logical flush draws.

So, I like the bluff from Rampage, but is there any chance it will get through, and will Garrett ever fold a straight in this spot? Check out the video above to find out!