The hand we’ll be looking at today took place during a recent Hustler Casino Live stream, featuring the usual suspects and Nicky P, the man who spends most of his time grinding tournaments but decided to accept the invitation and test his cash game skills.
The action starts with several players getting involved before the flop, but it gets down to just Nicky P and Mariano heading to the flop after a series of preflop raises.
The stakes are $25/$50, with a $100 UTG straddle active, and Mariano is the effective stack, starting the hand with just over $47,000.
Preflop Action
The hand begins with Henry opening to $600 from a lojack holding pocket eights. Nicky P, in the cutoff, wakes up with A♦A♣ and 3-bets to $2,200.
The action folds to Kevin in the small blind, who looks down at pocket jacks and decides to cold-call. Mariano finds Q♣J♣ in the big blind and decides to go for a squeeze, making it $8,000 even.
This gets rid of everyone, including Kevin and his pocket jacks. Nicky P isn’t going anywhere, of course, and he bumps it up once more, making it $17,200. Mariano makes the call, and they proceed to the flop with $37,550 in the pot.
Preflop Play Analysis
We have a very interesting preflop setup in this hand, leading to a lot of action. Henry is first to act with a decent pocket pair, so he naturally goes for a raise. The sizing seems a bit big, but it’s not that unusual in these deep-stacked live games.
Nicky P could try and get tricky with pocket aces here. If he just flats Henry’s raise, there is a good chance someone behind would go for a 3-bet. However, 3-betting himself is a much more standard play.
Kevin in the small blind has the hardest decision. Pocket jacks are a strong hand, but with a raise and a 3-bet (from a fairly tight player) in front of you, they shrink up quite a bit. Folding seems like the easiest play, but it’s hard to lay down big pairs. Raising again seems way too ambitious and is basically turning his hand into a bluff.
The decision is between calling and folding, and both options are probably fairly even given the action in the hand.
Mariano has a hand that plays fairly well in multi-way situations, so calling is a perfectly reasonable option. Squeezing seems a bit too aggressive with so much action in front of him, but it also improves his chances of winning. It’s hard to say if this is the perfect play in this particular spot, but it’s also hard to ever be too critical of an aggressive play that goes after a pot with a lot of dead money in it.
It folds to Nicky P, and he can go for a 5-bet or flat call to trap Mariano. Calling would be a much more viable option if he didn’t have Kevin still to act behind. However, with another player still active in the hand, taking an aggressive route to clear the air seems like a safer approach.
Kevin gets the message and easily gets rid of his Jacks. Mariano now knows that his hand is no good, but he is getting great odds to see the flop. His call is risky, especially given the SPR will be less than one going to the flop, but he still has a bit of maneuvering space.
Flop Action
The flop comes Q♥3♠3♣, giving Mariano a top pair. He plays in flow and checks to Nicky P, who fires a small continuation bet of $5,300.
Mariano quickly makes the call, bringing the pot to $48,150, and they proceed to the turn.
Flop Play Analysis
This is one of the best flops for Nicky P. There are almost no hands in Mariano’s range that he has to worry about, except for pocket queens. On this texture, he needs very little protection, so he can go for a very small bet, especially given the stack-to-pot ratio.
Mariano has to call. Nicky P will fire this small bet with his entire range. Granted, his range is quite narrow after 5-betting before the flop, but he can still have some ace-king holdings and maybe, once in a blue moon, a hand like A5s. So, with a top pair and a backdoor flush draw, he has an easy call.
Turn Action
The turn is the A♠ for the board of Q♥3♠3♣A♠. Nicky turns the top full house and effectively the nuts, while Mariano’s hand significantly shrinks in value.
After Mariano checks, Nicky P follows suit, so there is no betting action on this street, and the pot remains at just over $48k.
Turn Play Analysis
Mariano absolutely hates seeing the ace on the turn. That card improves all of his opponent’s holdings that might have been bluffing the flop.
For Nicky P, this is a bitter-sweet card as well. While it improves his hand, it is an action-killer, and he knows he’ll struggle to get any more money from his opponent. He doesn’t need to bet the turn to get all the money in the pot, so he checks back.
River Action
The final card hits the board in the form of the 3♥ for the full runout of Q♥3♠3♣A♠3♥. This improves Mariano to a full house, but it doesn’t really change the situation.
After Mariano checks for the third time, Nicky P moves all in for about $25,000 effective, but Mariano doesn’t even think about it, and his cards hit the muck almost instantly.
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River Play Analysis
Once an ace hits on the turn, Mariano is pretty much done with the hand. The only way he puts more money into the pot is if another queen hits the river for a complete cooler.
Nicky P’s check on the turn doesn’t change anything, as Mariano is aware that his opponent can easily check back all of his strong hands here. He reads the situation correctly and makes a great fold, despite getting good odds on a call with a relatively strong hand.
As for Nicky P, he did what he could to get more value, but he’d have a much better shot at it if the board ran clean, with no aces or kings. Even then, Mariano could perhaps find a fold, but it would be much harder to do so with a top pair on a paired board.
