Many people have been talking about this hand between Doyle Brunson and David “Raptor” Benefield (Cardrunners and Full Tilt Poker pro) on Poker After Dark’s Pros vs. Online Players episode. Here is how the hand went down:
“Before talking about food, I want to address the 56 vs KJ hand I had on Poker After Dark. I am getting a lot of questions about my thought process during that hand, so I suppose I should talk about it a little bit. Before I say anything, I want to say that I think Doyle is a super awesome guy, a great ambassador for poker, and just an overall nice person that is impossible to hate.
The general outline is, there isn’t a single hand he ever has on that river that he is bluffing with there. Not one. He is never double floating me, then raising super small after tanking for two minutes. It is just not a play that is in his arsenal, nor the arsenal of any winning/half decent player. This was definitely not an easy spot, and what I find myself doing most often is just saying screw it then calling, which I just don’t think is the most profitable play.
The only hand I can conceivably beat on the river here is KJ. That is it. ONE hand. There isn’t anything else that will call the flop, call the turn, tanking for like 90 seconds on the river then make a super itty bitty raise, and with my range, I decided it would be absolutely terrible to value raise KJ on the river in Doyle’s spot. Obviously, if we want to be results oriented fish, we can be like haha Doyle OWND raptor what a stupid fish he folded TRIPS ZOMG ZOMG what a stupid ‘net’ this just proves how hard ‘vets’ own.
Well, yes, he ownd me, but he thought he was value betting, when he is getting paid off by NOTHING except hands that beat him. I am folding AK/KQ there, but he doesn’t know that, and those are the only possible hands he could possibly expect to pay off there that he can beat. He decided to act like the stereotypical live player and think oh, this kid raised in EARLY position and bet all the streets on a K high board, he must have the AK.
I admit, I look extremely silly on tv here, but if I had to run that exact situation a thousand more times, I would still fold every single one of them based on my read(yes I am aware this opens up opportunities to turn top pair into a bluff blah blah we can talk this in circles). There just aren’t enough hands that I beat in that specific spot, and I am still utterly convinced calling there is lighting money on fire in the long term.
Unfortunately, I made the mistake of giving Doyle too much credit. I find that happens a lot in live games I play in, well, even online for that matter, and it causes me to make a few errors I wouldn’t make if I just continued to play under the assumption that everyone is an idiot. Unfortunately again, this makes me look like a huge idiot, but I am ok with that. I am not going to get mathematical and break down hand ranges and blah blah because that is boring, but I went with my read that Doyle thought Doyle had the best hand and that I thought Doyle thought about my entire range of hands instead of putting me on the AK, and made the very tiny super small value raise based on that. My read was incorrect, and I cost myself the biggest pot of the night because of it.
The closed minded individuals that are like haha stupid nit ‘net’ is scared to play in that big game with all that LIVE money zomg he shoulda just checked river.. well, I don’t even really know how to respond to that other than LOL there is a reason you don’t win money at poker. I think the decision was super close, and honestly could have easily gone the other way if I had a slightly different read, or he gave off something or if anything at all changed. Based on the information I had, I felt a fold was the best play. A super close play, but the best play. That’s all I got, Love you guys, thanks so much for all the support. Now back to the food log, wheeeeeee.“
This video pretty much sums up the entire situation:
This makes me want to go to Full Tilt Poker and play this guy.
