Although the HCL Million Dollar Game finished a few weeks back, it featured so many interesting hands and big pots that are worthy of a more detailed breakdown.
The hand we’ll look at today is pretty much a cooler, but given the very deep-stacked nature of the game, even these scenarios deserve a second look.
Not surprisingly, the two main characters of this massive pot are the most active players in the game, Texas Mike and Peter. Texas Mike is the effective stack, starting with $600k, with blinds being $500/$1,000 and the $2,000 big blind ante.
Preflop Action
The action starts with Peter picking up A♥A♦ in the hijack seat and opening the action to $4,000.
Texas Mike, in the cutoff, finds a very strong hand himself in J♠J♣, but he flat calls instead of raising.
Jasper in the small blind looks down at A♠9♦ and goes for a squeeze, making it $30,000. Keating folds in the big blind and the action is back to Peter.
With the best poker hand possible, Peter now makes it $80,000. Texas Mike calls once again, while Jasper gives up, so only two players proceed to the flop with $193,000 in the middle.
Preflop Play Analysis
This is an interesting hand where a couple of unusual decisions create quite a bit of mess. Peter’s initial raise with pocket aces is, of course, standard.
Texas Mike is facing a late position open from one of the most aggressive players in the game, and he has pocket jacks. He also has several players left to act behind, so calling instead of 3-betting is really not a good idea.
Pocket jacks are a strong starting hand, but they are also quite vulnerable. He should be raising to try and isolate Peter and make sure no one else enters the pot. Plus, he has an incentive to build the pot in position against a player who is not likely to fold to a 3-bet.
As played, when the action gets to Jasper in the small blind, he has a reasonable hand to try a squeeze play. Peter’s range is super wide, and Texas Mike has certainly under-represented his hand. The big sizing makes sense as well as he’d rather take the pot before the flop than have to play a tricky hand like A-9 out of position in a bloated pot.
For Peter, the standard play here is certainly to raise again, and that’s what he does. There is perhaps some argument for flat calling, but once more, a player with his aggressive image doesn’t have to worry about looking too strong. Other players know he’s well capable of doing this with a hand much worse than pocket aces.
Texas Mike is now in a really difficult spot. His decision to not raise the first time around makes it harder to make a correct decision.
Raising again seems too optimistic and is basically turning a strong hand into a bluff. Folding after playing it this way doesn’t make much sense, either, so calling and playing in position does feel like the best choice at this point in the hand.
Flop Action
The flop comes J♥5♦2♥, so Mike flops the top set. Peter fires a continuation bet of $70,000, and Texas Mike makes the easiest call in the world.
The pot grows to $333,000 going to the turn, but it is now Mike with a huge mathematical advantage and looking good to double up.
Flop Play Analysis
Texas Mike strikes gold, flopping the top set on a pretty safe-looking flop. Peter has no reason to think his pocket aces aren’t the best hand on this board, and he even has the ace of hearts as a backup. So, he goes for a relatively smaller continuation bet, which seems pretty standard.
For Mike, calling is the only reasonable option here. There are very few hands he has to be worried about at all at this point. Given the preflop action, Peter could have a flush draw with a hand like A♥K♥ or A♥Q♥, but other than this, he has this board pretty locked up.
Turn Action
The turn comes the K♠, making the board J♥5♦2♥K♠. Peter doesn’t slow down as he barrels again, making it $125,000 to go.
Mike thinks it over and once again makes the call, bringing the pot to $583,000 with just one card to come.
Turn Play Analysis
The king on the turn is probably not Mike’s favorite card, as Peter will have pocket kings some of the time, but it’s certainly not a super-bad card, either.
From Peter’s perspective, the king is a blank, pretty much because Mike can never have pocket kings after just calling twice before the flop. He is also unlikely to have a set of deuces or fives, so pocket jacks are the only hand that makes sense that would have him in trouble.
So, he has no reason to stop betting for value. Mike could move all in here, but that gets rid of all Peter’s bluffs, and being in position, he doesn’t need to do that. Calling and letting his opponent do his bidding is the best option.
River Action
The final card is the 8♣ for the runout of J♥5♦2♥K♠8♣. Peter takes a few seconds and then moves in for Texas Mike’s remaining $327,000.
Mike beats him into the pot with the second nuts and scoops over $1.2 million!
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River Play Analysis
The river card is an absolute blank, and there is no way for it to change anything in this hand. From Peter’s perspective, if he was good up to this point, he’s still good.
The only thing he may consider is checking to try and potentially let Mike bluff a busted draw. However, with Peter holding the key flush blocker, the number of realistic draws Mike can have here is very limited.
So, betting for value is the best way to get paid by hands like AK that improved on the turn, maybe AJ or pocket queens. While some of these hands are easy folds against certain opponents, aggressive players like Peter do get looked up much lighter.
Of course, Texas Mike has the easiest call in the world here with the second nuts. If his opponent somehow has pocket kings, so be it, but with all the hands Peter could hold here, it’s not really worth thinking about.
