PAD--Gus' Check, Check, Check, Bet

[Rushmore]

I searched to see if anyone mentioned how poorly Hanson played with A4 vs. Seed's Kx, when the board came AQTxJ.

Couldn't find it, thought it was worth a mention, so here it is:

Fine, he slow-played TP/No kicker into a serious mess with a dangerous board, and that's bad, no doubt.

But the bet behind on the end is abysmal. What hand he can beat is calling here? There's nothing in the pot. If he's raised, he cannot possibly find a call with the four-straight on board (assuming Seed is bluffing).

This also doesn't say much for Seed's check on the river, unless he somehow knows that Hanson is going to make a terrible value bet with any pair or a bluff with 9-high or worse.

I don't know--I feel like I have oversimplified it, but I've watched it twice and cannot really understand the play on this hand by two players reputed to have some game.

[private joker]

I agree with this. I loved the HU match and I think Gus and Huck were playing pretty great the entire tourney -- totally outclassing Duke, Hellmuth, Sheikhan, and Zolotow.

But that A3 hand... Gus' river bet seemed crazy. How is there any value in a bet there? He's never getting paid off by a worse pair on that board. He must hate himself for not betting the turn.

There must have been something else going on between them that we can't really pick up on TV. 4th level stuff, or maybe Gus realized that when he had the KQ hand and bet the river Q, Huck almost paid him off with K-high. If he thought Huck was going to pay off with nothing, I can see why he bet -- but that board is pretty horrible to bet with Ax.

It was really the only huge mistake I saw that episode. (Another one was his very questionable call with A-high on the K6663 board when Huck had the K).

[TimTimSalabim]

It's a HU match where your opponent is playing virtually any 2 cards, so there's not as much reason to think of AQT as a dangerous board, especially in an unraised pot (if there was a raise preflop, I believe the hand would have played very different). He slowplayed top pair (a very strong hand, again for the above reasons) because as you point out, there's nothing in the pot. Huck got lucky and hit a 4 outer.

As for the river play, it's a really thin value bet, still I think there are some losing hands that Huck would call with. Consider how passively the hand has played out, Huck might call with any pair.