Setup Poker Hand of the Week
This legendary hand comes from the partypoker Premier League tournament at Playground Poker Club Montreal featuring Dan Jungleman Cates, Antonio Esfandiari, Phil Laak, Jeff Gross, Brian Rast and Jason Koon among other poker legends.
Both opponents are good friends and know each other’s game very well as they often play with each other.
Poker Hand of the Week Action
Preflop Action:
At Blinds of 4,000/6,000 Brian Rast raises it up from UTG+1 with A♣8♣ to 13,000 and Phil Laak defends his big blind with Q♠7♠. Pot size: 36,000
Flop:
The flop comes 3♦6♠4♦ is bad for Brian Rast as it is very coordinated and cleary favours the big blind defending range.
Laak checks to the preflop raiser and Rast consequently checks behind. Pot size: 36,000
Turn:
The 10♣ on the turn doesn’t change the board structure. Laak has the gutshot to the nuts and two overcards and could take a stab here, but decides not to and so it goes check-check again. Pot size: 36,000
River:
The river 10♦ is an action card as it not only completes the flush, but also makes a full house possible.
Phil Laak now sets Brian Rast, who has 180,000 chips behind, All-In for 5 x pot.
With this massive overbet Laak is polarizing his hand to a very strong hand or a bluff. Brian Rast is very aware of it and starts to speaking to Phil in order to get a read.
After a couple of seconds he says: “This gotta be a bluff” and after going through the hand one more time, Rast announces Call and Ace-high is good!
Poker Hand of the Week Analysis
We chose this hand, because it is a great example how important betting patterns and tells are in live poker. Phil Laak checks both on the flop and the turn and then suddenly goes All-In for 5 x pot on the river.
This line doesn’t make much sense as Laak hasn’t shown any strength and interest to build the pot, neither preflop, nor on the flop or turn.
Of course, he can have the occasional trap, where he flopped a set or the nut straight, but would he really check twice with such a strong hand? Probably not and especially not on the turn as ne risks to lose to much value, as Rast already checked behind on the flop.
Last but not least, Laak makes a mistake by giving away the most obvious tell in live poker: “Strong means weak”. When Brian Rast speaks to him on the river in order to get a read, Phil pretends to be super relaxed grabs his water and drinks, which often means the opposite.
This tell might have been, what ultimately gave it away together with the betting pattern, as Brian Rast picks up on it and shortly after announced Call.
- View more poker strategy articles here
Watch Brian Rast’s Hero Call against Phil Laak here:
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