Poker Strategy Info And Source:
Making a hero call for a large portion of your stack on a poker final table is not an easy feat. This is why Brock Wilson is widely considered to be one of the best poker players in the world.
I am extremely pleased to announce that Brock Wilson is joining the PokerCoaching.com coaches team and will be here to bring you extremely high level poker coaching for our premium members. Brock has amassed almost $5,000,000 in live tournament winnings and is a regular in the high stakes tournaments. His coaching content will help understand what it takes to get to the highest stakes in poker and help you take your game to the next level!
Learning to master a short stack is vitally important to becoming a well rounded professional poker player. Any poker player will know that your stack will eb and flow throughout a tournament and it’s important to be able to master changes in your poker strategy depending on your effective stack and opponents.
This hand took place during a $10,000 Poker Masters event in the PokerGO studio, Las Vegas. Brock Wilson starts the hand as the shortest stack at the table with 5 players remaining. His opponent, Elio Fox, is one of the larger stacks at the table.
Elio Fox is actually in an awkward spot preflop as he has some large stacks in the blinds still to act. If the blinds were shorter stacked then Fox could shove as they would have to fold a large majority of their range due to Brock Wilson being the shortest stack at the final table. Payout implications and ICM should mean your poker strategy adapts.
I discuss the strategy you should be using when you are out of position on low boards (it’s a lot of checking!). These boards connect well with your opponent’s range. I also discuss how you should construct a range to hero call with on the river. It is important to recognize which cards are good to have and which are not.
#PokerStrategy #HighStakesPoker #BrockWilson
Source: YouTube
What would YOU do on the river with A♣ T♦?
Your Stack (CO): 695,000
Their Stack (BTN): 2,200,000
Pot: 325,000
Board: 3♦ 9♥ 7♣ 2♠ 8♦
You check, BTN bets 300,000
A) Fold
B) Call
C) Raise to 695,000 (all-in)
Surely GTO requires that Elio should bet occasionally on the flop with some hands (slightly weaker) in order that he can bluff more on the turn. Otherwise Wilson can pressure him on blank rivers a lot with slightly worse hands than his AT?
Having just followed your analysis, I think that Wilson SHOULD call. Elio perhaps would have raised hands on the flop and or turn that make straights on the river so Wilson can discount those. Elio could have A8h-A8s and K8c-K8h-K8s and 87h 87s but Elio also will have lots more combos of KT-QT QJ both off suit and suited that would take this line. I would probably fold myself thinking 'what can I beat ' ?
I would have called, but maybe because of the wrong reasons. My rationale would be that the button should have bet hands that connect with the flop on the flop or the turn often, so it's not likely that he connected to the flop. Also, if he had a small or medium pocket he should bet at least on the turn to protect it as the turn card is practically the best that can happen to a small pair. Heroes range is full of high cards. Hero does block JTs and T8s, both fall into the category that could have bet before often, so what's the valuerange of the Button? Me figures it is likely a 8 of which he has not a ton or maybe a 7 of which he has only a little more (like A7s, 87s, 76s). He also has a lot of face cards which he can bluff.
I am not quite convinced that AK-AJ would have been bad calls because the valuerange of the Button is actually small. Even if having a K, Q or a J is blocking hands that would check the flop or the turn and the T is blocking hands that bet, because of the small value range of the button there should be easily enough bluffs left for button. Button may have some face card combinations offsuit and he has certainly less combinations with a T offsuit. AT is a better call than AK-AQ, that's true, but if you fold these hands on the river you would fold a lot. KQ-KT I would fold. But probably not any ace.
Hi Jonathan I think the ship has sailed on the x/r all in. What is Brock saying he has if he does this? I get checking with a set or AA oop on the flop, no harm in letting your opponent catch up a bit. Even on that brick turn a check is fine. But when his opponent checks back twice Brock has a mandatory lead on the river with his value hands. It would be a disaster to see your aces or set check thru. So to sum it up I just don't think a x/r bluff is believable. So should he hero call? Definitely worth considering. As played his opponent has got to the river with quite a few junky offsuit broadways eg KJo, QTo, QJo, even ATo himself. What can we read into the large sizing? Fox is pretty much saying he has a set that was trapping, a str8, or nothing. For that reason I like AT as a call down more so than a hand like say 55, as you are somewhat blocking JT. Still not an easy call to make, as as a short stack losing another 300,000 chips would be… less than ideal. Conclusion tho: call.
I would hink about calling here, getting roughly 33% to break even on the call (my ICM concerns are minimal being the short stack). I think the combos Fox is representing on the river are very few given the polarity, only really 2 combos of 78s, given that he checks the 7 on the flop and turn. Some checked through slowplays, 9-12 combos (cut it out to 4-8 given that he does it at a 25-67% frequency). All his other combos thats lacking showdown value in his range really want to bluff here. ( 80+ combos?) I think this can be a slam dunk call. At least not a bad call.
With his short stack he can't afford to fold.
blocks no bluffs? meanwhile opponent bluffing w. KTs : )
Calling is out of the question. It’s a fold or all in. I can’t narrow it down to one or the other because I can already see the hole cards and the myriad of other factors. If I had to say one or the other I’d fold just because A10o is a weak bluff catcher.
Oops looks like I was wrong
Call