With the World Series of Poker in full swing and the world’s most popular live-streamed poker show, Hustler Casino Live, on a short break, cash game fans were left slightly underappreciated this week.
Fortunately for them, The Lodge Card Club in Austin, Texas reopened its doors recently, and the Poker at the Lodge show came back, while KPC Live streamed the first Match of Season 4, featuring none other than Tom Dwan in some high-stakes action.
The Lodge games were relatively small in size, but great fun for the true fans of the game, while the new KPC Live episode brought real high stakes action and some massive pots.
For those of you who may have missed the game, here is a rundown of the biggest pots and a few of the most interesting situations that came up with Tom Dwan and his high roller friends.
Massive Pot Brewing on KPC Live
The new season of KPC Live started somewhat timidly, with players buying in for $50k each, and the blinds set at $100/$200, with a $300 Squid Game on.
It didn’t take too long for the reloads to kick in and the stakes to go up, which allowed for some massive six-figure pots to develop.
One of the biggest pots of the session started with Zhang Xiaoyu raising it up to $4k with his Q♠Q♦ and Wangye taking the aggressive route with his 7♥7♦, re-raising to $15k.
The other players got out of the way, and Xiaoyu put in the 4-bet to $40k, giving Wangye the perfect price to make the call with $352k behind effectively.
He made the call and got instantly rewarded for it, as the flop revealed 9♦7♣5♠, making a set of Sevens and putting Xiaoyu in a very difficult spot.
Zhang kept betting on the flop, putting out a $40k c-bet, and Wangye just called, setting the trap and hoping to get his opponent’s entire stack.
The 10♥ on the turn didn’t change too much, but Zhang did decide to practice caution. Both players checked, as Wangye underplayed his set in the hopes of tricking his opponent.
The 5♥ on the river was a particularly bad card for Xiaoyu, as it gave him two pair, and improved his hand against holdings like T9, which his opponent might have been working with.
He went for a justifiable value bet of $110k, only to see his opponent move all-in for the remainder of his stack.
With $202k left in his stack, Zhang Xiaoyu eventually made the call, building a pot worth $783,900, which unfortunately went the other way, as his opponent’s full house was revealed seconds later.
This pot played a big part in Wangye being the game’s biggest winner, up $329k, while Zhang ended up losing $197k in the session.
Four Runs Into Quads
One of the more interesting hands of the session came down to two of the Asian high rollers in the game. The action started with a few $400 limps, and Four made it $3,200 to go with his K♠K♥.
Yulei called with 8♠8♥, while other players made disciplined folds. The flop came down Q♠10♠8♣, giving Yulei the bottom set and a lot to be excited about.
Four put out a very small bet of $2,600, and Yulei likely made a mistake on the flop, as he just called on a very draw-heavy board, where he could have gotten immediate value.
The turn revealed the 8♦, completing the quads for Yulei, and Four continued firing for $9k. Once again, Yulei decided against raising, as he smooth called the bet and went to the river.
The river revealed an inconsequential 2♥, and Four went for a large value bet this time around. He bet $32k, right around the size of the pot, putting his opponent to the test.
With the ultimate nuts, Yulei didn’t have much of a decision to make, but rather only needed to get his opponent to believe he might be bluffing.
Yulei took some time before moving all-in for $118k, and the action was back on Four, who had a very difficult decision to make.
This was the kind of spot that typically separates great Texas Hold’em players from the average ones, as it’s very easy to make the call and blame the loss on bad luck.
However, Four wasn’t about to do that, as he took his time to dissect the hand and think about the potential bluffs his opponent could have.
After a few minutes of deliberation, Four managed to send his Kings into the muck, and correctly so, saving himself some $85k in the process.
Despite folding here, Four simply couldn’t get anything going in the game, and ended up losing $211,500, which could have been a lot worse, while Yulei walked away with a profit of $171,600.
Durrrr Can’t Catch a Break
The big star of last week’s KPC Live show was Tom “durrrr” Dawn, the online poker legend who has been making a living playing in private games in Asia for over a decade.
He was having a rough night this time, however, as he seemed to keep backing up into a brick wall at every turn. As the session was drawing to a close, he was down money, but got a spot where it seemed like he could win some of it back.
With $83.3k in chips, Tom looked down at Q♥Q♣ and saw a few $400 limps in front of him, which was quite common in this game. He popped it up to $4k, and immediately got a call from Zhang’s 10♦8♦.
However, as the action folded back to the limpers, Wangye, who held pocket Aces, re-raised to $21k, putting Dwan into a bit of a difficult situation.
With a hand as strong as pocket Queens, Dawn didn’t have too many options, although the limp-raise from Wangye looked incredibly strong.
Tom did eventually ship the rest of his stack into the middle, which got rid of Zhang. He quickly got the bad news, as his opponent snap-called, swelling the pot to just over $171k.
The players agreed to run it twice, and the boards ran 9♠2♣9♣K♣K♦ and A♣10♥3♠4♠4♣, giving Wangye both halves of the pot.
There simply wasn’t much Dwan could do in this hand, or the rest of the game, with the cards he was dealt, and his $184k loss could have been worse had he played with less discipline.
