Making quads is a pretty rare occurrence in poker.
Just imagine how rare it is to make quads in a 4-bet pot while playing over 200bb deep in a $200/$400 game!
Today we will look at a hand where this happened. It features two top poker pros, Linus Loeliger and Barak Wisbrod, playing on GGPoker.
(In case you don’t know Linus, he’s widely considered to be one of, if not the #1 cash game player in the world.)
The effective stacks to start the hand are around $86,000.
Let’s dive in!
Preflop Action
Linus raises to $1,000 from the Button with Qd [Qc]. Barak 3-bets from the Small Blind with As Kc to $4,000. Linus 4-bets to $12,000. Barak calls.
Simple Preflop Analysis
Both players are dealt premium hands with which they want to put a lot of money into the pot preflop.
Linus’ raise and 4-bet with Pocket Queens are both good. He wants to build the pot fast with one of the best starting hands in poker. He uses a relatively large 4-bet size (3X) due to the deeper stacks.
Both of Barak’s decisions (3-bet then call the 4-bet) with Ace-King are good as well. He could also choose to 5-bet — and he would almost certainly would choose that option if stacks were shallower.
Advanced Preflop Analysis
Linus makes the clear raise with Pocket Queens. He should raise with the top 45-50% of hands with a size anywhere between 2bb-2.5bb.
Barak’s 3-bet with Ace-King is another clear decision. At this deep stack depth, his 3-bet range should contain the top 13-15% of hands. His sizing should be between 10bb-12bb.
Facing this 3-bet, Linus correctly elects to 4-bet. He should be 4-betting with a polarized range. That range should include premium hands for value along with some bluffs mixed in. Appropriate bluffing hands include with low-suited Aces and suited connectors. He should also occasionally call strong hands like Pocket Queens to protect his calling range (since they are so deep).
As far as 4-bet sizing goes, anything from 2.3x to 3x is likely optimal. I typically use a slightly smaller size than Linus did for a couple of reasons:
- The Small Blind has less incentive to 5-bet against the big 4-bet.
- Against a smaller 4-bet, the Small Blind is forced to call weaker hands.
But evidently Linus prefers using a larger size, likely because of the deep stacks. To his credit, it is generally good to increase your in position sizes when stacks get deep. (Doug Polk did this a lot during his heads-up challenge vs Daniel Negreanu.)
Barak calls the 4-bet, which is completely fine. Preflop simulations show that 5-bet shoving is the preferred action, but calling at a low frequency is also a fine play.
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Flop Action
The flop comes Qs 7c 2h and the pot is $24,400.
Barak checks. Linus bets $6,000 with his top set. Barak calls with Ace-King high.
Simple Flop Analysis
Linus flops top set and Barak has two overcards.
Baraks starts with a check, as he should with all of his hands. On this dry and disconnected flop, there’s no good reason to lead out into the player who showed incredible strength preflop.
Linus’ bet is the correct play and his quarter-pot size is smart. He has the nuts and wants to set himself up to win all of the money. The pot is already pretty big, so he can use this small size and still expect to get all the money in by the river.
Even though he missed the flop, Barak makes the correct call with Ace-King. He’s getting great pot odds and has plenty of opportunities to improve to a strong top pair.
Obviously, we can see the cards and know Barak is drawing basically dead. But he is ahead of many hands in Linus’ range (such as Ace-Five or King-Jack suited) and has six outs to outdraw a hand like Pocket Jacks.
Advanced Flop Analysis
Linus makes a good c-bet with his flopped set. As the 4-bettor, he has a large range and nut advantage on this disconnected board. This means that the correct strategy will be to c-bet with his entire range (see: range bet).
Size-wise, anything between 20-60% pot is good (with the higher sizing being preferred). The reason for the larger size stems from Small Blind’s range composition. His range revolves around middling pocket pairs. The best way to extract expected value (EV) from such a range is by utilizing a larger sizing, lowering the EV of those bluff-catchers.
Barak has an easy hand to call with on the flop. He is just facing a quarter-pot bet with two overcards to a very powerful top pair and blockers to the top of Linus’ range. This hand has great properties for check-raising as well as check-calling for the reasons mentioned.
Other hands that should continue from Barak’s range are top pairs, middle pairs, Pocket Jacks through Pocket Eights, and some backdoor flush draws.
Turn Action
The turn comes the Ks, making the board Qs 7c 2h Ks. The pot is $36,400.
Barak checks. Linus bets $20,000. Barak calls.
Simple Turn Analysis
This is a disaster for Barak as he now has top pair top kicker vs Linus’ set.
Even though he’s turned a strong hand, Barak should check to the aggressor.
Linus should keep up the pressure by betting. He wants to set up a river shove, and his $20,000 bet does just that.
Barak has no choice but to call. His top pair top kicker could easily be the best hand.
Advanced Turn Analysis
The turn Ks is one of the best possible cards for Linus’ range and he should continue to bet. A lot of his flop bluffs have improved to top pair or draw of some kind.
Even though he is drawing dead, Barak has to call. Top pair top kicker is simply too strong to fold at this point of the hand. Raising for value would be too thin as it would be difficult to get called by worse.
River Action
The river comes the [Qh], making the board Qs 7c 2h Ks Qh. The pot is $76,400.
Barak checks. Linus shoves for $48,120 effective.
Simple River Analysis
Linus now has Quads vs the top pair top kicker of Barak.
With smart bets on the flop and turn, Linus has expertly setup himself up to shove all-in on the river. Well played by him.
Barak is in a very close spot on the river — it’s hard to say which is better between call or fold. It comes down to whether or not he thinks Linus is bluffing enough. Most players will seldom bluff in this situation. But Linus is a very strong and aggressive player, so it would be hard to fault Barak for calling.
Advanced River Analysis
Linus’ bluffs have whiffed and the Qx hands in both players’ ranges have improved symmetrically (i.e. both players are roughly equally likely to have a Queen). At this stage, Barak maintains his range advantage and Linus his nut advantage.
For this reason, Barak should always check over to Linus with his entire range. Well played hand by Barak so far.
Linus has a very easy shove with his quads. His worst value shove should probably be Ace-King — though that may also be too thin in practice. He should utilize Ax suited hands as his bluffs as they have the best blockers for Barak’s bluff-catching range.
Barak has a mandatory call in theory. In practice, however, this is a tough spot. In theory, he should defend according to the Minimum Defense Frequency (MDF) formula, which is roughly 63% of his range. Ace-King easily makes the cut.
In practice, however, it’s hard to say if anyone is going to bluff enough or even over-bluff in this spot when playing 200bb deep in a $200/$400 game.
Results
Barak calls. Linus wins the $172,640 pot with his quad Queens.
What do you think about Barak’s call? Do you think Linus would bluff frequently here?
Let me know in the comments below!
This is the type of spot where reads and psychology come into play. It’s what separates the weak from the good; the great from the best.
We should applaud the mental athletes competing in this extremely high-risk, extremely difficult mental warfare arena.
If you want more high stakes hand analysis, check out Doug Polk Tries to Bluff a Guy Who’s Up $2.5 Million (Hustler Casino Live Analysis).
Till’ next time, good luck, grinders!
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