Doug Polk is a well-known professional poker player who was once considered one of the top heads-up players in the world. He also has one of the most recognized poker YouTube channels and owns a coaching site called Upswing Poker.
Let’s see if Doug became rusty or if he has been working on his craft in one of the biggest hands played on the Poker At The Lodge live stream.
This hand was played at $200/$400/$400 8-max No Limit Hold’em, and it started with Taras opening A♦6♦ from UTG, Polk 3-bet with A♠4♠ from UTG+1, and Alex cold 4-bet with J♠J♦ from CO, which is already just a very low-frequency 4-bet with this stack dept.
Taras folded, and Polk then went for a low-frequency 5-bet that is also questionable and possibly losing play with this stack dept, and Alex called.
The GTO Wizard solution for this preflop spot is not perfect as it is an 880 big blinds deep 8-max ante+straddle spot, and solutions for this kind of spot are not supported. But having the ante and straddle already in the pot as dead money makes the cold 4-bet with pocket jacks a bit better, but it’s not going to be a day-and-night difference, but a marginal one.
The flop came 2♣3♣9♦, which should favor Polk’s Range slightly. Neither player will have any sets in their range, but Polk will still have more of the top overpairs like AA and KK. Alex will also have some of these top overpairs at some frequency, as he wants to use them to protect other weaker hands in his range.
Polk does the right thing and goes for a small c-bet of around 20 percent, and Alex is not in a great spot as, in theory, he is only beating ace-king hands that missed or some bluffs that should be limited with this preflop action and stack sizes, but he makes the call.
The turn comes J♥, which is the best card in the deck for Alex, and Polk continues to barrel in a spot where there are only a few good rivers for him. Any ace river is not great for him as Alex can have stronger aces in his range; other overcards are not great as Alex has jacks-aces in his range, and the only rivers that Polk can bet for value are 5♥, 5♦ and 5♠. He is probably thinking of bluffing any club on the river or any low card, as he has more overpairs in his range.
Alex makes the right play and slowplays his top set with 91 percent of equity to keep all of Polk’s bluffs in and not scare off queens-aces overpairs.
The river comes 8♥, and it is a great card for Alex, as none of the possible flushes or straights get there. Polk still doesn’t give up and possibly makes a mistake as, by now, Alex has already committed half of his stack, and his range is quite narrowed.
So when Polk goes all-in on the river, the pot is around $521,000, and Alex has to pay $186,000 to win the total pot of $707,000. His range is jacks through aces, and this doesn’t give Polk enough fold equity as he is expecting Alex to fold out pocket queens, pocket kings, or A♣K♣.
Alex makes the easiest call of his life with a top set of jacks and wins maybe the biggest pot of his life.
After the hand was played and the chips were counted, Polk took a few deep breaths and said, “I think I can give up ace-five and (not)fire this when I should never f**ing fire.”
*Images courtesy of Poker At The Lodge YouTube channel
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