Poker Hand Matchup: Barlomiej Machon vs. Christopher Kruk

Outcome

Preflop, we are nine handed and only a few hands have been dealt. The blinds at 30,000 and 60,000 and a 10,000 ante. Machon raised to 125,000 from UTG. Kruk and Daniel Negreanu called from the small blind and big blind respectively. On the flop Kruk and Negreanu checked. Machon bet 210,000. Kruk called. Negreanu folded. On the turn Kruk checked. Machon bet 275,000. Kruk called. On the river both players checked.

Analysis

This event was the first big high roller final table that the Lublin, Poland native, Bartlomiej Machon, had achieved. Earlier in 2017 he had final tabled a smaller high roller event at the Party Poker Millions events at Nottingham, UK and also cashed for $282,611 for a second-place finish at a previous day’s $13,000 buy-in tournament in the same series. To no one’s surprise, Machon proceeded to carry himself like a seasoned professional. He took down most of the early pots, to quickly build up a formidable stack. The preflop action was pretty standard, but we don’t know what hand Negreanu folded on the flop. Kruk had flopped top pair and was going nowhere when Machon continuation bet about two-thirds pot on the flop. Kruk’s hand improved on the turn to a big flush draw. So, when Machon barreled again, it was an easy call for the Canadian native. The river improved neither player. Kruk checked, clearly hoping his top pair would take the pot down. Machon must have thought the ace on the turn could have hit Kruk and chose to play it a bit safe and not bet out for value on the river. Kruk got the bad news and the pot slid over to Machon.