A Hand Matchup from the 2014 WSOP $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em

Outcome

Preflop, with the blinds at 2,000 and 4,000 and a 500 ante, Harry Kaczka raised to 8,000 from late position, Ezzie reraised to 21,000 from the button, Player A went all in from the big blind, Kaczka folded, and Ezzie called.

Analysis

Ezzie tried to make a late position steal play against Kaczka, and Player A seems to have been well aware that this motive was in play as he jammed his last 22 big blinds in with KQ. He was going to be trailing all the Ace-X combinations, but he relied on his situational awareness of late position dynamics and accumulated observations of his neighbor when he mounted the play. Ezzie had a feeling he was behind, but he faced 56,500 more for the pot of 113,000, getting square 2:1 odds on his call. He probably anticipated having live cards against Player A's Ace-x combinations, but in fact they shared the King. Player A paired up on the flop, but Ezzie did pick up a gutshot straight draw. The sweat increased as the turn gave Ezzie a four flush, and Player A would now need to fade a host of new Club outs. Player A caught a key double up but his fate is unknown, while Ezzie went on to finish in 145th for $52,141.