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Gytis Lazauninkas |
Win Pre-Flop | Win Post-Flop | Win Post-Turn | |
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Starting Stack: 4,200,000 
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59 % | 62 % | 80 % | Winner! |
Nick Schulman |
Win Pre-Flop | Win Post-Flop | Win Post-Turn | |
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Starting Stack: 6,825,000 
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40 % | 38 % | 20 % | |
Outcome
Preflop: With six players remaining and blinds of 125,000-150,000 with a big blind ante of 150,000, Gytis Lazauninkas raised to 550,000 from the hijack with K♣Q♠. Nick Schulman called from the big blind with 7♥5♥.
Flop: A♣K♥2♥
Schulman checked, and Lazauninkas bet 400,000. Schulman called.
Turn: J♦
Schulman checked again, and Lazauninkas checked behind.
River: 5♣
Schulman moved all-in. Lazauninkas called all-in for 3,250,000.
Analysis
The Triton Poker Jeju II $100,000 no-limit hold’em main event was down to six players, each guaranteed $958,000. The next couple of pay jumps were relatively small, (only about three buy-ins apiece) and everyone was between 17 and 58 big blinds, so there was a lot of incentive to play for the win.
Gytis Lazauninkas was the shortest stack, but he had plenty of hand to open with. Nick Schulman had an easy defend in the big blind with a suited one-gapper.
The flop action was also straightforward, as the big blind does hardly any check-raising in this situation due to a massive range disadvantage on the A-K-2 board texture. (If both players have GTO ranges, the preflop raiser has more than 70% equity.)
On the turn, Lazauninkas checked back, and he was probably holding the hand that benefited the most from it. Second pair, albeit with a good kicker, would often narrow the opponent’s range to mostly top pair if it kept putting money in the pot.
Schulman found a pair on the river, but he correctly deduced that he had a better hand to bluff with than show down. The big blind gets to be quite aggressive in this situation, targeting the hijack’s middle pairs, K-X, and J-X. Even some A-X hands are supposed to fold to a jam.
Lazauninkas had a tough decision for his tournament life, holding an indifferent bluff-catcher. In other words, if Schulman was playing a balanced range, calling and folding would have similar expected value.
The payout structure favored making a bold move, and that’s what Lazauninkas did, correctly calling off for a double. Schulman was left with only about 10 big blinds, but he managed to spin back for the win and a career-best $3,854,888. Lazauninkas earned a third-place payout worth $1,968,000.
- Photos by Triton Poker