We saw a massive cooler on the latest Poker After Dark episode, when Ronnie Bardah rivers a wheel against Ilyas Abayev Trips with top kicker. You would expect all the money to go in here, right? No it didn’t, but watch for yourself…
Poker Hand of the Week Setup
The latest Poker After Dark week is called “Watch Your Step” and it features action player Frank Stepuchin, Mike Matusow, Landon Tice Marle Cordeiro, Ilyas Abayev, Alex Ding and Ronnie Bardah.
They are playing 7-max NL $50/$100 with a mandatory $200 straddle and Ilyas Abayev has Ronnie Bardah easily covered at the start of our Poker Hand of the Week.
Poker Hand of the Week Action
Preflop:
Matusow straddles to $200 and Ronnie Bardah raises to $550 from the Hi-Jack with 4♣3♣.
Ilyas Abayev picks up A♣K♦ in the small blind and 3bets to $1,300. Bardah calls and everybody else folds. Pot Size: $2,900
Flop:
The flop A♥2♣A♠ is huge for Ilyas as he flops trips with top kicker on a rainbow board. Ronnie does however pick up some equity with a wheel draw.
Abayev checks to the preflop raiser, who checks behind. Pot Size: $2,900
Turn:
The 9♥ on the turn is a blank and surprisingly Ilyas checks and it again goes check-check. Pot Size: $2,900
River:
On the 5♦ river Bardah binks the gutshot straight. Abayev checks for a third time and Ronnie makes a sizeable value bet of almost pot size.
Ilyas just snap calls and sees that it was a good decision, when Ronnie Bardah turns over the straight to collect a $7,900 pot.
Poker Hand of the Week Analysis
With a setup like this all the chips should have gone into the middle, but instead Ilyas Abayev manages to lose the absolute minimum here by playing AK very passively. Let’s take an in-depth look.
Preflop Ronnie Bardah makes a loose raise, but considering that he sits in the Hijack and that Suited Connectors have a lot of potential in cash games raising them every once in a while from this position is fine.
Ilyas has an easy 3-bet from the small blind with AK and Bardah a call in position.
The flop is an absolute dream for Ilyas Abayev giving him Trips Top Kicker on a rainbow board. He obviously checks to the preflop raiser, but Bardah doesn’t fall for it and checks behind.
On the turn Abayev checks again to set a trap, but I don’t like this check as he needs to try to build a pot with his monster hand after no money went in on the flop. He risks a check behind and this is exactly what happens.
As insult to injury, Bardah binks the straight on the river. He needs to go big here as his hand is extremely well-disguised and he is very polarized. This would have been a perfect spot for an overbet, but Ronnie decides to bet 86% pot instead.
Poker Hand of the Week Conclusion
Ilyas Abayev just calls with his monster hand also the flush draw missed and manages to lose the minimum. However, would he have bet the turn, what he should have done, he would have won the hand.
And the moral of the story is: Play your strong hands aggressively, instead of passively, and build a pot to ensure that you get paid with your monsters.
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