Johnny Chan's Aces On Poker After Dark

[SlackerInc 0]

This kind of blew my mind, and I thought I'd post it as a hand from Chan's POV, not giving away the other players' cards. (If you saw the hand, don't give away the results, obviously.) All these players have won WSOP ME bracelets, so they must know what they are doing...right?Chip count:Hero (Johnny Chan)--38kHuck Seed--25kJamie Gold--21kJoe Hachem--21kDoyle Brunson--15k(Greg Raymer went out in sixth place.)BB is t400.Hero is CO with [Ad Ac]. Brunson folds. Hero raises to t1200. Button (Gold) folds. SB (Hachem) calls t1000. BB (Seed) calls t800.Flop: [6d Js Jc] SB checks. BB checks. Hero checks.Turn: [6d Js Jc] [3h]SB checks. BB checks. Hero checks.River: [6d Js Jc] [3h] [2h]SB checks. BB bets t3500. Hero...?ETA: The pot was t3500 until the river, when Seed's bet made it t7100.

[Lord_Strife 0]

This kind of blew my mind, and I thought I'd post it as a hand from Chan's POV, not giving away the other players' cards. (If you saw the hand, don't give away the results, obviously.) All these players have won WSOP ME bracelets, so they must know what they are doing...right?Chip count:Hero (Johnny Chan)--38kHuck Seed--25kJamie Gold--21kJoe Hachem--21kDoyle Brunson--15k(Greg Raymer went out in sixth place.)BB is t400.Hero is CO with [Ad Ac]. Brunson folds. Hero raises to t1200. Button (Gold) folds. SB (Hachem) calls t1000. BB (Seed) calls t800.Flop: [6d Js Jc] SB checks. BB checks. Hero checks.Turn: [6d Js Jc] [3h]SB checks. BB checks. Hero checks.River: [6d Js Jc] [3h] [2h]SB checks. BB bets t3500. Hero...?ETA: The pot was t3500 until the river, when Seed's bet made it t7100.

In my opinion there's incredible levels of thinking going on. Chan might check both streets because both players checked to him because they expect to see a continuation bet from Chan. However, Chan would have to know that Huck Seed is capable of checking a J or a boat on multiple streets against a CO raiser. I think folding here would be incredibly bad against their ranges of hands (however, a physical tell might change my mind). I think this river decision is like 55% raise, 44% call, 1% fold. One thing to consider is that Chan might have considered himself so incredibly far ahead of his opponents that the only way he was going to make any money in this pot was to get one of them to bluff at it.

[The Nuts 0]

Well, Johnny has to ask himself this:"What hands do they call my flop bet with that I have beat given the preflop action?"Obviously, they raise flop with Jx and 66, but what do they call with? It's unlikely for either of them to have TT+, AK since they'd re-raise from the blind. They might even do that AQ and AJ at a 5-handed table.So, let's say their preflop calling range is:KTs - KQs, KTo - KQo, QTs, QJs, QTo, QJo, JTo, JTs, A5s - AJs, A5o - AQo, 22-99, T9s, 98s, 87s, 76s, T9o, 98oTheir re-raise range is:AQs+, AKo, TT+A tight re-raise range, but will keep it at that.That's a pretty loose calling range (Johnny is raising from CO after all). How many of those hands would generally call a flop bet?A loose player might call 77-99 hoping to steal back on the turn, but that's a pretty risky play to make OOP. Any jack and 66 at least call, possibly raise. All aces, pairs smaller than sevens, basically any hand that does not contain a jack or is 66 that called preflop will fold to a bet. The only hands that call are ones that beat Johnny and maybe some that might make a turn play, but the odds of that happening are too slim to make a c-bet. Johnny would rather induce a bluff on the turn from Hachem or Seed on a blanked turn.If my opponents were very loose callers, I could probably bet out and get hands that beat me to call. But these guys are pros. What if Johnny gets check-raised by somebody here? Can he feel comfortable calling with aces here?The turn is basically the same as the flop. The deuce likely didn't improve anybody's hand enough to play past the turn (unless either of them had 22, which is very unlikely). Again, Chan would only get called if he's beat. If the turn was a face card that's not a jack, Chan might make a move at it and hope that Hachem or Seed caught the king or queen and would continue in the hand. Of course he's golden if he hits an ace. The river is another blank. Raising any river bet is totally out of the question here. Again, only called if he's beat. Hachem obviously has no desire to put any more chips into the pot. Seed makes a big stab at the pot. A fold is very read-dependent here. Huck likes to make these big bets with his monster hands every so often to make it look like a steal attempt. Against your average opponent, I snap call the river bet. I almost never fold here though.

[timwakefield 68]

There is a long thread about this in General. Johnny Chan is simply a sick motherfucker, end of story. I don't think I'm spoiling anything by saying that in reality Chan INSTA-folded the river, and Seed held 6s full. Not to be a jerk, but there's no sense trying to analyze the hand in the way that it's presented here. Chan made an incredible read on Seed's initial check to him on the flop, and apparently knew that he was drawing to 2 outs. He didn't hit any of his outs, so he check check folded correctly. Seed was chatting away and suddenly the flop comes 6JJ and he shuts up, looks at Chan, and checks. Chan read it for what it was, and went with his read completely.

[looshle 6]

I think this river decision is like 55% raise, 44% call, 1% fold.this is never a raise, it's either a call or a fold and it's almost 50/50. to bet the pot huck has to have no hand or at least trips. aces are only a bluff cacther at this point so chan's hand could be a lot weaker and still have almost the same type of decision.

[SlackerInc 0]

I don't think I'm spoiling anything by saying that in reality Chan INSTA-folded the river, and Seed held 6s full.

"Not to be a jerk", but how do you figure you're not spoiling anything? Not everyone watched the show, and neither does everyone read General (I know this for a fact, because I've never read a single thread there).

[timwakefield 68]

"Not to be a jerk", but how do you figure you're not spoiling anything? Not everyone watched the show, and neither does everyone read General (I know this for a fact, because I've never read a single thread there).

Ok sorry, but I was trying to make the point that you can't just analyze this hand by looking at the action. The whole point of it was that Chan had a read on Seed's reaction to the flop.

[SlackerInc 0]

Ok sorry, but I was trying to make the point that you can't just analyze this hand by looking at the action. The whole point of it was that Chan had a read on Seed's reaction to the flop.

I suppose you're probably right--makes more sense than any other explanation.Speaking of Huck Seed, what are we to make of his early preflop folds of AJ and AQ (twice), in at least a couple cases in an unraised pot? Is there any sense whatsoever to playing so tight when the blinds are low?