Taras Gets Stubborn Against Mariano in a $100k Pot
5 minutes
Last Updated: July 11, 2024
Successfully catching a bluff from your opponent is one of the best feelings in poker, even when you play at the highest of stakes. However, good players know that trying to do this too often will get you in trouble.
The hand we’ll be looking into today involves a bluff-catching situation and two of everyone’s favorite players – a poker streamer and personality, Mariano, and a high-stakes regular at the Lodge, Taras.
Blinds are $50/$100, with a $200 straddle, and Taras is the effective stack, starting the hand with just under $74,000 in front of him.
Preflop Action
The action begins with Mariano opening to $500 from the cutoff with K♣9♠. It folds to Taras in the small blind, who wakes up with A♠Q♠ and 3-bets to $1,500.
This gets rid of the remaining two players, and the action folds to Mariano, who makes the call, and the two proceed to the flop with $3,400 in the middle.
Preflop Play Analysis
Mariano’s cutoff open is perfectly standard in this spot, as he’ll be attacking the blinds with a wide range of hands from a late position.
Taras picks up what can be dubbed a premium in the small blind and goes for a natural 3-bet. However, his sizing might be slightly off. Playing out of position and against a competent opponent, he should probably be making it four or five times the open to discourage Mariano from calling.
As played, even though K-9 offsuit can be a tricky hand to play in a 3-bet pot, getting great immediate odds and being in position, Mariano pretty much has to call and see the flop, which he does.
Flop Action
The flop comes K♠K♦7♣, giving Mariano trips and not bringing much help for Taras. However, as a preflop aggressor, he fires a continuation bet of $1,000.
Mariano thinks for a little bit and goes for a raise, making it $3,100 to go. Taras decides the price is right and makes the call, bringing the pot to $9,600.
Flop Play Analysis
Although Taras completely whiffed the flop, this particular board texture favors the 3-bettor, so his c-bet is perfectly standard. Small sizing is also sensible in this situation, as a small bet will pretty much produce the same result as a bigger one if his opponent failed to connect to the flop.
Mariano nailed the flop pretty hard but there are still some hands that Taras can have that are ahead – AK, KQ, as well as some KJ and KT suited.
With this in mind, his decision to raise has two goals. Since the small c-bet doesn’t really mean anything, this will help better define Taras’ range. The bet also adds some money into the pot when Taras has a decent but weaker poker hand, primarily a pocket pair.
Back to Taras, and he’s getting a pretty good price on a call. However, he is out of position, and his hand doesn’t have much equity. There are some backdoor draws he can fall back on, but with a paired board, he can’t even be confident about his straights and flushes even when he goes runner-runner.
So, although it may seem a bit weak, probably the best course of action is to just fold here and avoid complications down the road. Taras clearly disagrees as he makes the call and continues to venture deeper into this hand.
Turn Play
The turn is the 6♠, bringing the backdoor flush draw as the board now reads K♠K♦7♣6♠. Taras plays in flow and checks to Mariano.
Mariano continues with the aggression and assembles a big bet of $11,300, over-betting the pot. Taras, having picked up a flush draw, makes the call and the pot balloons to $32,200.
Turn Play Analysis
A spade on the turn is one of the best cards Taras could see after calling the flop raise. It improves his hand to a nut flush draw, which means that even if his opponent has a king, he still has some outs on the river.
Of course, donk betting on this turn wouldn’t make much sense, so he checks to his opponent, who took over the betting lead on the flop.
Mariano is pretty confident he has the best hand at this point. It looks like his opponent has a pocket pair or has hit the seven on the flop. So, he goes for value but decides to over-bet the pot.
The big sizing is interesting, but the decision is probably a combination of a few factors. Mariano knows that Taras can get sticky and doesn’t fold easily. Plus, the turn card brought in a few potential draws, and if it helped his opponent, he wants to charge those draws.
This is exactly what happens in the hand. Having found one of the best possible cards, Taras doesn’t want to fold and give up, even though he’s not getting the right price to chase the flush, especially on a paired board and out of position.
River Action
The board completes with the 10♦, making the full runout K♠K♦7♣6♠10♦. This card doesn’t help Taras, so he checks to Mariano for one last time.
Mariano goes for full value, once again betting over the size of the pot. He makes it $34,000, and after some deliberation, Taras makes the call with just ace-high, shipping a $100,200 pot Mariano’s way.
River Play Analysis
The river card is pretty much a blank. It only completes one backdoor straight draw, which constitutes just a small portion of Taras’ range. There is also a small possibility of this card making a full house if he held on with pocket tens specifically.
With very little to be afraid of, Mariano naturally goes for a value bet, and since the river card hasn’t changed much, he once again chooses a big bet size.
This makes sense, as his opponent could decide to hang on with made hands (like pocket pairs), and missed draws will likely fold regardless of the sizing.
An added benefit of the overbet is that it makes Mariano’s hand look more like a bluff. This is clearly something sitting in the back of Taras’ mind as he doesn’t want to give up.
Eventually, he makes the call and is shown the bad news. This river call is optimistic, although Mariano is capable of pulling a three-barrel bluff.
His specific hand is also not the best bluff-catcher since it prevents Mariano from having a backdoor nut flush draw, which is one of the hands that he might continue to bluff with on the turn.
Keeping your aggressive opponents “honest” is fine from time to time, but it’s important to pick your battles, and this wasn’t the best spot for Taras to stand his ground.