[Captain Freedom]

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Give Gabe credit for reading weakness in Howard's flop bet and trying to make a move by leading on 4th street.

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After hearing a ton of Gabe commentary on HSP, and seeing him play on live at the bike/hsp/poker after dark, I'm pretty certain he's just a donk. When he's right it might look cool, but the fact remains he wouldn't play an ace like that ever, and Howard figured that out.

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But the fact that Howard saw through it and could smooth call the turn bet knowing he'd have to then "value bet" the river (and expose more chips). Wow. Very well done.

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I think Howard's played pretty horribly, and doesn't deserve accolades. His horrible play with 1010 in the blinds, his overall nitiness. He made a good read on this hand, but still screwed it up by just calling the turn bet instead of raising. The problem being that Howard can't beat a bluff, so he can't call a river bet even if he thinks Kaplan is bluffing. If Kaplan ever fires a third barrel Howard has to give up on the hand. If he thinks Kaplan is weak he needs to raise the turn, while he still has enough chips to bluff. This has the added bonus of denying Kaplan a free card if he has a weak pair/draw.

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List,

You make some good points but I'm not sure I fully agree with your assessment of Howard-Gabe hand.

- Gabe was right on his read and wrong on his execution.

- Howard was right both on his read and his execution.

Why did Howard play this well?

He followed his instincts and acted accordingly. He knew:

1. Gabe did not have Ace and was making a play for the pot.

2. He knew Gabe would shut down on river and not fire another shell (given Howard had shown strength preflop, flop, and turn)

3. He knew Gabe would fold on river to a small value bet (regardless of the card)

I think it took a lot of courage to play the hand the way he did - he trusted his instincts both on the player's hand and the player's future line. With shorter stacks in play, it made it even more impressive.

Bottom line, I think it sometimes takes more heart to smooth call with willingness to play the next street then simply to raise trying to push people off hands.