Dan “Jungleman” Cates and Yoh Viral are two of the most unpredictable and entertaining players in the high-stakes poker world. Jungleman is known for his eccentric table presence and uncanny ability to sniff out bluffs, while Yoh Viral, one of the most recognized figures in the cash game scene, brings an aggressive and often unorthodox style that keeps opponents constantly guessing.
So when these two collided in one of the Hustler Casino Live (HCL) streams, the result was nothing short of entertaining. Yoh Viral went for a big bluff, but Jungleman just didn’t believe him and called with seven-duce. Let’s see what happened and break down the hand street by street.
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Preflop Action
The game was $200/$400/$400 No Limit Hold’em, and the hand stared when Yoh Viral opened from CO with A♥3♦ to 11 big blinds, which would be awful sizing in theory. Still, in this hand, Yoh Viral was in a two-hand winnings streak, and every time a player would win three hands in a row, he would get $2,000 for every other player at the table, which would, in this case, be $10,000 (25 big blinds), so we can say this sizing makes some sense.
Jungleman decided to 3-bet from the BB with 7♣2♦, which is also another mistake in theory, but he would also get $1,000 from each player at the table if he wins the hand with seven-duce, which would bring him ($5,000) 12.5 big blinds plus he wouldn’t have to play ($2,000) 5 big blinds to Yoh. Yoh Viral decided to call, and the pot is $31,400.
The Flop Breakdown
The flop came 7♠3♥K♠, which, in theory, hits Junglemans range better as he is uncapped and has range advantage with ace-king, pocket aces, and pocket kings still in his range, while Yoh would still has pocket sevens, pocket threes and suited kings in his range. Jungleman c-bet $10,000 with the second pair, which is good, and Yoh just called, but the third pair is okay-ish, considering all bonuses included in the hand. The pot is $51,400
The Turn Breakdown
The turn was Q♠, which changed the dynamic of the board and the relative value of the hands as sets, two pairs, and pairs become less strong on the board where there are three spades and players could have potential flushes. So, in theory, this is going to be one of the Jungleman’s worst holdings, and it will rarely win on the showdown or even manage to get to the showdown. The best thing to do may be to go for a smaller bet, as he still has to have some bluffs on this runout and can’t check 100% of the missed hands, in order to avoid being exploitable. Jungleman checked, and Yoh also checked.
The River Breakdown
The river was 10♠, which brought the fourth spade to the board, giving the Jungleman a good runout to bluff his hand as it had low chances of winning at the showdown or being a good bluff-catching hand.
Jungleman decided to check, which looks like a give-up, but he should expect that if he checked twice on the cards that changed the board, his opponent might realize that his hand is weak and doesn’t want to put more money into the pot.
Yoh realized that and, after a long tank, went for a pot-sized bet, which is half of the Jungleman’s stack. Four spade boards are generally under-bluffed, but the table dynamic with bonuses and previous action in hand might make it over-buffed.
Jungleman went into a very long tank and counted the combos Yoh might have when he should just reduce the number of combos that would bluff for that sizing. As one of the commentators said, “six-high flush will not bet $49,000,” and the actual number of value combos would just be the hands that have J♠ or A♠ that would try to stack lower flushes.
The number of bluffs should be significantly higher as some of the strong flushes bet the turn at some frequency, and we would want to turn a lot of our hands into the bluff when our opponent’s hand is kind of face up after checking twice.
In the end, Jungleman made a fantastic call with seven-deuce and won the pot of $149,400 plus a $5,000 bonus for winning with seven-deuce. Even though Jungleman made some mistakes, he is an excellent player and has the ability to break down the hand in real-time and make amazing calls like this one. Yoh Viral couldn’t believe what Jungleman called him with.
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Lesson: Even if you do the right exploit, sometimes it just won’t work if you are playing against thinking or nonthinking opponents. This also doesn’t mean you should stop making good plays, as they will make you profit in the long run.
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