2017 WSOP Main Event Final Table -- Hand #155
Late in the final day and the blinds are up to $1,000,000 / $2,000,000!
Scott again shows why he's the world champion by getting max value with a VERY marginal hand. Would you have won as much as Scott with this hand?
NOTE: In all these Scott Blumstein Hand Reviews, the best learning experience is achieved by pausing the video at each decision point, and thinking through the situation BEFORE listening to Scott's comments.
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Or use the link below to practice the exact hand Scott was dealt:
Click here to practice King-deuce offsuit, from the small blind, 3-handed, as the big stack
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Comments
Thanks again @SteveBlay for more great content.
Interesting hand. I really liked Scott's thoughts pre-flop, realizing he was now in a better position to apply pressure with the medium stack on his left. He now has maximum fold equity because Pollak doesn't want to go out before Ott. He's also handcuffing Ott because Ott can't get out of line and make standard button opens for fear of Scott jamming him and forcing tons of folds. Scott is just in a perfect position to dominate at this point.
I like the large open. He's going to fold out a ton of Pollak's range and really get a good idea of Pollak's range when he is called. I would have liked to know what he would have done had Pollak 3-bet here. Would he have continued OOP with K2o? I don't think he can find a 4-bet bluff knowing Pollak has to be playing uber-tight. So, I like his open but I'm surprised Pollak didn't 3-bet and pick up the 10.3M in the middle. That would have been a handy 5+BB to have with the BB now moving over to the short stack. Do you have any thoughts on why Pollak decided not to 3-bet? I know he needs to be cautious but AJo is a huge hand here and he has to know Scott is going to attempt to steal with a range wide enough to drive a truck though. Scott definitely doesn't want to double Pollak up here and give a really strong player a stack to work with.
I like the check on the flop and the small bet on the turn. I think he explained that nicely. The river bet is a bit thin for me when the board paired the 7. I liked some of the reasoning behind it though. It does limit his exposure in a way because there just aren't many hands Pollak can reasonably raise with. At the same time, all the stronger hands would likely have bet the flop or raised the turn so there just isn't much out there. I'm probably checking here with the intention of calling a reasonable bet by Pollak. I'd consider the pair a bluff catcher more than a bet for value. So, he definitely extracted more value here than I would have. Good stuff.