Fedor Wood
In 2016, 49 high rollers each paid 300,000 knives to compete in the Aria Super Bowl high roller race, competing for a championship prize of up to 5 million knives.
Among them was poker wizard Fedor Holz. With amazing strength, Holz eventually finished second, adding a reward score of 3 million knives to his resume.
This week's hand came from this game, but in this hand, Holz encountered a barrier set by Dan Shak...
The hand process
At this point, the bubble period of the Super Bowl high roller game is approaching, and the atmosphere on the court is getting more and more tense, because the reward circle is about to appear.
The 7th place will receive a reward of 600,000 knives – twice as many as the buy-in – but there are still 10 players on the field, which means that there are still 3 people who will return empty-handed.
The front of the card was folded all the way to Fedor Holz, who got qq in the small blind spot.
With a blind of 12,000/24,000/3000, Holz holds 810,000 chips, or about 34BB. He started the game with a raise to 65,000.
Dan Shak sat in the big blind seat and was the last person to speak before the flop. He is also a big chip on the table, holding 1.8 million chips. He chose to call and the pot rose to 145,000 with an effective chip of 745,000.
Flop: K99
Both sides played cards.
Transfers: 10
Holz placed 60,000 bets, Shak called, the pot rose to 265,000, and the effective chips were 685,000.
River Card: 7
Holz took another shot, placing a bet of 120,000, and Shak hesitated for a moment before suddenly raising the stake to 300,000, a move that directly put Holz in a difficult position – he even used a chance to think overtime for this.
Holz eventually decided to call, Shak lit up J10, only to hit a pair of 10, and Holz won the pot.
The poker game video is as follows (unfortunately, we only found the Danniu commentary version, and did not find the original video of the game at that time, please forgive me)▼
Tips: The video duration is 08:00, please connect to WIFI to watch, please feel free to ~
Analysis
The amount of money involved, this card alone has a lot of exciting highlights.
Let's take a closer look at how Holz, who has already made two thin value bets, continued to remain calm and gathered enough information to successfully catch the deception when the opponent suddenly turned to bluff.
Holz, who was sitting in the small blind spot, was awakened by the third hand of the toe, and there was no doubt that the raise was certain.
Since he was in the small blind position, his raise was a little higher than usual to make up for the loss of no position.
Big blind Shak got the J-10o and had no reason to fold. The J-10o is very good after the flop when there is a position, and Holz's raise range is also very wide, and once Shak hits the card, the chances of taking the pot are very large.
Flop circles over the cards
Flops have a pair of 9s and a high-card K, so Holz isn't too happy with the deck, but he's still ahead of Shak for the most part.
Technically, there is little point in placing a bet at this point, as there are not many cards that can actually be called. What's more, the cards that can be called three consecutive streets are basically impossible to be worse than their own, so it is a very correct choice to cross the cards.
Shak may be semi-bluffing, but Holz may also use Kx to do the same to control the pot. By passing the cards he can reserve all the possibilities for himself in the following betting rounds.
For example, if Holz continues to play cards in the transfer, he may be doing something to steal the pool.
Bet on the thin value of the turn
Turning the deck, Holz unhurriedly placed a small bet, wanting to make a card type similar to 10x, flush listening card and straight-out listening card to pay.
A lot of amateurs play cards here, but Holz thinks he's the lead, so he tries to get more value and stays active in this hand.
Shak is certainly not going to fold now, as he has already won the second best against Gacca. Holz is also likely to be bluffing the pool, and with pot odds of more than 3-1, it is impossible to fold.
The sword of the river card circle is raging
So far, the direction of this card has not been much different from what we expected, but in the river card circle, both players have taken it to a new level with strength.
Holz thinks he's still ahead of the curve and makes another thin-value bet with a good chance of being paid for by some worse cards.
But at this point, Holz can only place Shak above a specific hand, and that's a sub-optimal pair — because there's no worse card to keep calling.
At the same time, There are also some Kx and slow-playing 9x cards in Shak's range, in addition to some scare cards that may also be shot in the river card circle.
Holz's bets are partly about the value and part of the blocking element, but he's not entirely sure how far Shak will go.
Bold bluffing
Dan Shak is not planning to fold, instead, he is brewing a raise. Since his hand cards can basically only defeat the bluff, this increase is really surprising.
You might think it's pointless to turn a steady hand into a bluff, but a closer look reveals that there are some additional factors to doing so.
If Holz is bluffing, he will fold at the moment, which means he will lose as many chips as shak in his call (not raise). But if Holz does have cards, Shak might be able to use them as well.
At this point, Shak is playing a 9, or it can only be a 9 – his idea is to make JJ, QQ, Kx and AA fold.
So the question arises: with pot odds of 3.8-1, what is the probability that Holz will fold?
The answer is that while Holz is very uncomfortable with where the game is going, don't forget that he is still the top 10 player on the GPI Global Chart! He is experienced enough to see the possibility that Shak is useful for bankruptcy, and Shak is still a CL on the field, and he will use the advantage of big chips to pressure opponents.
It is worth mentioning that if the catch fails, Holz will only have 385,000 chips left, basically hopeless to enter the circle. This also makes this call extra precious, which shows that Holz's strong mind can still make the right decisions calmly under such a lot of pressure.
Summary
Dan Shak's analysis of the hand is in place and challenges one of the best players in the world with a bold bluff. And his opponent Fedor Holz, during the period, did feel a dilemma, but in the end, he relied on a strong mind to survive, which was wonderful!