Ahhhh PKR Cash Game TV. The eternal wonder of what Ashley Hames is on about and whether he will get sued by the end of the episode :) ... Once again the hand selection taunts me by missing out the three hands I played extremely well and showing the one I spent the most time questioning myself about following the end of the session...
http://www.pkr.com/en/community/news-events/pkr-tv-14-01/
This was an interesting session for a number of reasons. You can sit down with a starting stack of 250 big blinds on the the Cash Game TV tables which makes for a much more interesting game and allows for more complexity of play. I sat down with the standard 100 as the table was full of tricky opponents and I didn't want to go nuts, especially as I was in a lot of tournaments at the time. The table dynamics were interesting as in Destacker and ForFoxSake you have two excellent tournament players who play very little cash. mudbone is awkward and tricky at the best of times. Elz442 is dangerous regardless of the format. PokerrPro is one of the most solid low stakes cash gamers on PKR.
Clearly there are often shenanigans present in these TV games that don't exist at a table normally but some very interesting hands came out of this session. The mudbone/Destacker hand is a corker for teaching purposes. There are very strong cases to be argued that both players played the hands brilliantly and that both played terribly. Neither line is something you would suggest a beginner to be taking with 4 2 and A K but neither of these players are beginners. They end up in a spot where you either look like a genius or a donkey depending on the outcome. If Destacker folds on the river then Mudbone has the moral victory. If Destacker calls the river bet and it turns out he has the worst hand then his line looks a bit silly. Destacker ends up looking like a genius in the hand but on the flop and turn he really could be anywhere. The turn bet is quite small though so having called the flop bet it is difficult to not call the turn one. Then the river doesn't really change a lot so I think it makes the call easier. I do wonder if Destacker finds a fold if Mudbone shoves the turn or the river? I think definitely so if done on the turn. I think Destacker might still call if it was done on the river.
The hand between myself and Destacker is an intriguing one. I have raised A Qo and Destacker has flatted 10 7 in the blinds. On the K 6 A flop he has flopped the flush and I have top pair, top kicker, with the nut flush draw. Both hands are monsters at this point. Normally I would be quite happy to get a lot of chips in on this sort of flop but the whole hand became unusually interesting. When Des leads out I know that I am either way in front or way behind. I don't think raising achieves much for me. He is likely to fold out worse aces and worse flush draws, and definitely all his air ball bluffs, if I raise, but he is going nowhere if he has flopped the flush or a set of sixes. The turn card is an absolute brick and changes nothing so again I flat the bet. The river is the best spot. It is another brick... and then he over bets the pot. I don't think he did this at any other point in the two hours. It absolutely polarises him between bluffs and made hands he is turning into a bluff versus a super strong monster hand. On reflection I think the over bet puts it more firmly in his value range than his bluffing range so I dislike the call. It is a tough one though. Either he is trying to extract value from sets, two pairs and smaller flushes or he is turning a hand like A 10o with the ten of diamonds into a bluff. I don't hate the call as the strength of my own hand has been somewhat hidden but I do think I should have erred on the side of caution. This hand also shows exactly how a session can revolve around one hand. I finished with a $14 loss and if I had found the river fold I would have finished with a $74 profit for the two hours.
These sessions are good to play once in a while, they get you thinking to a degree you often do not have to bother with in a standard low stakes cash game. It isn't profitable playing good players all the time but in small doses it is beneficial to your thought process.
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