Flopping a big hand is a big part of winning in poker. However, getting paid on those rare occasions when you do get a monster is even more important, especially since this is something you have some control over.
Quite a few things need to align for a player to win a big pot when they hit their monsters, but, as Mariano showed recently, getting creative and knowing your opponent can go a long way toward accomplishing your goal.
The hand in question comes to us from the Hustler Casino Live stream, playing $25/$50 with a $50 big blind ante, and there is a $100 live straddle active. As is often the case, players are very deep, with Mariano being the effective stack here with $128,000 in his stack.
Preflop Action
The action begins with one player limping in for $100. Mariano picks up 9♥9♦ in the lojack and bumps it up to $500.
Pipi, who starts the hand with over $136,000 in his stack, decides to go for a 3-bet in the cutoff, making it $2,000 with 8♣5♦.
Adi in the big blind makes the call with 6♠6♦. The action folds back to Mariano, who also calls with his pocket nines, so they proceed to the flop three-handed, with $6,275 in the middle.
Preflop Play Analysis
With one limper in front of him, Mariano goes for a slightly bigger raise of $500 with his pocket pair, and this is a perfectly standard play, so not much to discuss here.
Pipi’s decision to 3-bet with off-suite gappers is questionable at best. He and Mariano are very deep-stacked, and a hand like 8-5 off isn’t the kind of holding you want in this scenario, even when you have a position. With the action in front and players still to act, this is an easy fold and move on.
Adi has a bit of a decision in the big blind. Folding is certainly a decent option, but calling once to try and see the flop with a lot to play for (as he starts with around $45k as well) is reasonable.
With everybody else folding, Mariano has no reason to force the issue with his pocket nines. He can call to close the action and take things to the flop.
Flop Action
We see an action flop as it comes 9♠8♠8♥, giving Mariano the top full house and Pipi a trips. Adi and Mariano play it in flow and check to Pipi, who fires a continuation bet of $2,500.
Adi calls with his pocket sixes before Mariano springs to action with his monster, bumping it up to $11,000. After giving it some thought, Pipi makes the call, and Adi naturally gets out of the way.
The two proceed to the flop with just shy of $31,000 in the pot.
Flop Play Analysis
When two players flop big hands in a 3-bet pot, the action is guaranteed. Mariano has the virtual nuts here, while Pipi has certainly gotten an above-average flop for his hand.
With a lot of draws and top-pair type of hands available, a small continuation bet is standard here even against two opponents, and Pipi would do this with a lot of his holdings.
Adi should probably fold his sixes at this point. If it were a heads-up pot, calling to reevaluate on the turn would be fine, but with another player yet to act behind him, folding seems like the most sensible route.
Mariano has this board pretty locked up and, in many circumstances, he could just call. However, with such deep stacks, he wants to build the pot and get as much money as possible in the middle. That’s why he decides to go for a raise, looking to extract the maximum possible value with his top boat.
Pipi may not be thrilled to see a check-raise, but on a dynamic board like this and against an aggressive opponent, his trips stand to be the best hand a good percentage of the time, so he has no reason to do anything but call in position.
As for Adi, he finally gets the memo that his pair will not be winning this hand, so he throws his cards into the muck.
Turn Action
The turn comes the J♥, creating a very dynamic runout of 9♠8♠8♥J♥. Mariano goes over his options, and, after some thinking, decides to jam all in for $115k!
Pipi takes a few minutes to try and decipher this one, but ends up making the call, drawing to just one out. They run it twice, but the dealer doesn’t find the last eight on either of the runouts, and Mariano scoops the pot worth just over a quarter of a million.
–
Turn Play Analysis
With $31k in the middle and both players having four times the pot size left in their stacks, Mariano is trying to come up with the best way to extract the most value.
He decides on a huge over-bet, believing this would confuse his opponent and perhaps make him likelier to call than if he made a standard bet of, say, two-thirds of the pot.
The play clearly works as Pipi does call drawing pretty much dead, perhaps putting Mariano on a strong combo draw of some sort.
The problem with this call is that he can never expect to be miles ahead. Probably the best case scenario here is for his opponent to have a pair and flush draw combo, which still gives him a decent amount of equity.
Often, Mariano will show up with a made straight, in which case Pipi will need to improve with just one card to come.
Finally, there will be scenarios where he is drawing virtually or completely dead.
With all this in mind and facing a massive overbet, folding weak trips must be the preferred option unless you are facing a complete maniac who can make a play like this with complete air.
That said, Mariano clearly knows his opponent and manages to get him out of his comfort zone to get paid in full, showing that you sometimes need to think completely outside of the box and really zone in on the moment!
