Final WSOP hand from last night

gumpzilla · #1 07-14-2005, 01:08 PM

There is some discussion of this in the WPT forum, but it's the WPT forum, so I thought I'd put it here and see what people think about Black's laydown. From Cardplayer:

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Gregory Rice goes all in under the gun, preflop for his last $200,000. Andrew Black reraises to $350,000. Mike Matusow calls. The flop comes 10-9-7 rainbow. Black checks. Matusow comes up firing for $450,000, and Black folds pocket Queens face up. Matusow flips over 10-10 for top set. Rice shows J-5. The turn is a 5, and the river is a Jack, giving him a very cruel two pair on the river. Rice is eliminated, and Matusow is sitting on $5,104,000 in chips.

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Black's ending chip count was 2.09 million, meaning he started the hand with 2.44 million if this is correct; Matusow must have had something like 4 million at the beginning of the hand. Blinds were 20k-40k with a 5k ante, from what I can tell.

Thoughts?

durron597 · #2 07-14-2005, 01:17 PM

Matusow made a play like "I have TT. TT is a good hand. I call."

He's not *that* deep.

Baloosh · #3 07-14-2005, 01:18 PM

I like the laydown. There's no reason to get involved into an empty side pot (or very very small one) when one of the chipleaders is announcing he's got a monster and willing to bet into an empty side pot just to get your chips too. Even with an overpair, I like this fold.

I can't say that I'd do the same thing with Aces, but I can see folding Kings and Queens to move up one more spot. He's got to know Matusow is winning the main pot. If I had Aces, I'd have probably gotten all the money in pre-flop, and we'd be 3-way until the river.

davidross · #4 07-14-2005, 01:26 PM

When I read this last night I thought it must be a mis-print. If the details are correct he had an amazing read on Matusow. Wouldn't Matusow make that play with AT or almost anything? As a big stack he wouldn't mind them staying at 28 players for a while so I don't think I could have laid down Q's. Great laydown.

adanthar · #5 07-14-2005, 01:28 PM

[ QUOTE ]
When I read this last night I thought it must be a mis-print. If the details are correct he had an amazing read on Matusow. Wouldn't Matusow make that play with AT or almost anything? As a big stack he wouldn't mind them staying at 28 players for a while so I don't think I could have laid down Q's. Great laydown.

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Mike Matusow does not call a raise/reraise sequence with AT. No way. I'm putting him on AA-TT, AK, and when he bets this particular flop after I check with an all in player, I think the fold is relatively easy.

However, I think Black needs to bet the flop himself.

durron597 · #6 07-14-2005, 01:30 PM

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However, I think Black needs to bet the flop himself.

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Why? To prevent giving a free card to AK? Against Matusow's range, QQ is a huge dog on that flop.

adanthar · #7 07-14-2005, 02:45 PM

Because I think JJ and AK may very well bet as well and there's more combos of AK around.

I don't think it needed to be a big bet, though. Something like 200K would've been plenty to find out if he was beat.

gumpzilla · #8 07-14-2005, 02:49 PM

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However, I think Black needs to bet the flop himself.

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Given your read, what does this accomplish? The only hands that fold in the range you postulated are ones that he beats, if he gets repopped with AK (unlikely, I'll admit, but Matusow is very aggressive) it's a disaster. If you're going to fold to a check/bet, I don't see what good throwing up a flop blocker is, because you're out of position and going to be in the exact same place on the turn if Matusow calls only with an even bigger pot.

Alos, given how aggressive Matusow is, what weight do you give to the possibility that he's doing this with a mediocre holding, like some kind of low-middle pair? Clearly if Black can fold QQ there he would be right to attack like this, particularly since the side pot is not dry.

adanthar · #9 07-14-2005, 03:08 PM

If you get called on the flop I think you're beat almost every time and can just check/fold from there.

I might be wrong BTW, but only because of HoH2 (where Harrington has this giant leak of never betting other people out when he flops a middle pair.) If all pros think like that checking it down would be fine.

durron597 · #10 07-14-2005, 01:29 PM

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Wouldn't Matusow make that play with AT

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I sincerely doubt it. Not after an allin and a reraise. What is he putting the reraiser on?

Matusow's hand range is AA-99, AK preflop, and AA-99 post flop. The only hand QQ beats in that range is JJ, so since QQ is significantly behind the range it's an easy muck.