The Heads-Up Cash Game World Championship on CoinPoker wrapped up at the beginning of the month and featured some of the top poker players in the world battling competition-style, with one winner emerging to earn a Rolex and $100,000. The pot-limit Omaha half of the event came down to ‘Yodogoki‘ and high-stakes cash end boss ‘GucciNIKE.’ Yodogoki prevailed, winning $188,354 in addition to the earmarked prizes.
The CoinPoker YouTube team, featuring top PLO content creators Fernando ‘JNandez’ Habegger and Fabian ‘suhepx’ Rigo, broke down some of the most interesting hands in the $50-$100 match.
GucciNIKE Leverages an Elite Best Bluff-Catcher
GucciNIKE raised to $300 preflop, and Yodogoki called.
On the A♥6♥4♥ flop, Yodogoki checked, GucciNIKE bet $150, and Yodogoki check-raised to $825. GucciNIKE called. Yodogoki potted both the J♥ turn for $2,250 and the K♣ river for $6,750. GucciNIKE called.
Yodogoki showed K♥J♠10♣2♣ for the nut blocker and two pair, but GucciNIKE had Q♥9♥6♦4♦ for the winning flush. They won a pot worth $20,250.
Hand Analysis
Yodogoki’s hand isn’t great, but it has enough connectivity to defend the big blind in heads-up poker.
On the flop, GucciNIKE blocks a lot of continues with their two pair, but they can still go for a small size with the queen-high flush. Many hands that are drawing dead or thin will call. Instead, GucciNIKE faces a check-raise. Calling the entire continuing range is a normal response here, since the opponent should mostly be representing the nut flush.
Yodogoki can’t check-raise all of their bare K♥ hands in a single-raised pot, or they’ll have too many bluffs. But the ones that unblock pairs and especially straight draws make for good options since they generate some immediate folds. Once the turn and river brick out but give Yodogoki two pair, they have to decide whether kings up has any showdown value.
The answer is probably no after the turn pot. Most of GucciNIKE’s range should be sets and flushes on the river. So, Yodogoki goes for the river pot.
Unfortunately for Yodogoki, GucciNIKE might have the best bluff-catcher in the deck on the river. Not only did a fourth heart roll off on the turn, reducing flush combos for the opponent, but there’s a tiny bit of added blocker effect provided by the flopped two pair. When bluff-catching, a player wants to unblock as many bluffs as possible from the opponent. The big blind won’t check-raise bluff very often with 6-4 in their hand here, since that’s a good enough hand to call against a small size. So, GucciNIKE’s side cards are ideal in this spot.
Yodogoki Picks Off a Suspicious Bluff
With about 170-big blind stacks, GucciNIKE raised on the button to $300, and Yodogoki called.
Both players checked the flop for a board of J♦9♠5♣3♥. Yodogoki potted for $600, GucciNIKE repotted to $2,400, and Yodogoki called. On the 10♥ river, Yodogoki checked, GucciNIKE bet $4,050, and Yodogoki called.
GucciNIKE showed A♠Q♥10♦6♥ for a pair of 10s. Yodogoki held J♥10♣8♦3♣ for jacks up. They scooped the $13,500 pot.
Hand Analysis
GucciNIKE ops to check back on the flop here with an open-ended straight draw. With a nut draw that plays poorly facing a check-raise and big turn barrels while also not blocking any good hands, this is the optimal play.
Yodogoki pots the turn with jacks up and a straight draw, which is also good. This hand is very likely best and has a lot of river playability on a rainbow board.
GucciNIKE then responds with a non-standard raise. Generally speaking, PLO bluffs should have some properties that block the opponent’s value range. GucciNIKE’s hand doesn’t do so. They may have simply been figuring that the hand wasn’t an exciting calling candidate against a pot-sized bet. If they noticed Yodogoki stabbing turns too wide, then expanding the bluff-raising range would also make sense.
Yodogoki had to find the turn raise suspicious, particularly with blocking the 3 and the flopped high card. Some hands like Q-J-J-10 might slow play on the flop since they could comfortably raise almost any turn. Yodogoki blocks those, as well as turned sets that made sense in a value line.
GucciNIKE barreling the river big when a bunch of straights completed makes their line even more suspicious. A hand like 8-7-6-3 might make sense, but Yodogoki has a blocker to that as well. It all adds up to a good river bluff-catch, costing GucciNIKE most of a stack.
Hungry for more high-stakes poker content? Check out the CoinPoker YouTube channel and Bobby James’ YouTube channel for more action.
