Daniel Negreanu and Gus Hansen on High stakes Poker

One way to learn poker strategy is to do a hand analysis and try to figure out why a player acted the way they did. Try to put yourself in the mind of a poker pro like Daneil Negreanu for instance, and see if you can see what he sees.

Here’s a poker video from you tube that is pretty slick. (And sick). Let’s use is as an example for a hand analysis. Below, I am providing my analysis along with the approximate times they occur in the video.

40 sec – Antonio Esfandiari makes the decision to fold, even if he has a great starting hand. This decision is based on table position and previous betting actions of other players. It’s certainly a conservative play.

1:40 – Gus Hanson reraises with a large amount. He was facing an 8K raise, and makes it 26K. He does this because he thinks he has the best hand with trip fives. However, he is concerned that the Daniel Negreanu is on a straight draw. By raising, he’s trying to make it expensive for Daniel Negreanu to chase cards. He might even be thinking about ending the hand and take his gains before getting in trouble since the flop presents risks.

2:00 – Daniel Negreanu calls. He doesn’t reraise, and by calling he confuses his opponent. Gus probably puts Daniel on a draw, top pair, or even two pairs. Either way, this call has to make him feel good about his three fives.

2:40 – Gus Hanson just hit a quad and went from loosing the hand to winning it. He knows he has the best hand at this point. His goal is now to get the most money he can out of Daniel Negreanu. Note the size of his bet. It’s about 40% of the total pot size since he bets 24K into a 63K pot. Daniel now has to call 24K which represents about 28% of the total pot, which is now 87K. This was actually a risky move because if Daniel was on a draw, he didn’t have pot the proper pot odds to call. Gus took the gamble anyway, and it pays off since Daniel Negreanu does end up calling.

3:35 – Daniel Negreanu only calls, slow playing his hand because he thinks he’s winning. Watch what he’ll do on the next betting round.

3:50 – Gus checks his quads and lets Daniel hang himself. At this point, the pot is fairly big. Gus figured that Daniel will likely bet, and that’s a good analysis. If he was putting Daniel on a draw, the 8 on the river might have completed the straight. If it didn’t, there’s always the chance that Daniel will “represent” a straight. Either way, Daniel is not checking back. He has to bet no matter what. From Gus’ perspective, the bet is either due to the fact that Daniel has a strong hand, or represenst one by bluffing.

4:20 – Daniel Negreanu bets 65K in a 111K pot. That’s just over a half pot size bet. He figures his hand is good since he has a full house. He’s hoping Gus made a straight and will attempt to bluff with a reraise. In Daniel’s mind, the worse thing that can happen at this point is that Gus will fold. Daniel is essentially thinking exatly what gus was htinking the last betting round. Reality is about to hit Daniel pretty hard however…

4:25 – Gus goes all in, 5 seconds after the raise. This is something Daniel did not anticipate.

5:00 – Daniel now questions his hand. He goes over possible scenarios about what Gus could have, tries to talk it up a little and see if he can pick up any info. You can almost tell he senses he’s beat, but he just can’t let go of the full house. Most poker players would make the call. This is a typical scenario when two players each have a monster hand, and it really sucks when you have the weaker hand!

6:00 – Daniel finally decides to call, and ends up loosing the hand. Keep in mind that this is real cash they are playing with. Daniel actually lost nearly 300K in 6 minutes.

So there you have it, an amazing poker hand that was well played by both players overall. Even if Daniel lost the hand, his thinking was pretty good troughout the hand, he just happen to be facing a quad and it’s just not the kind of hand you put your opponent on. Taking this into consideration, it’s fair to say he made the strategic poker decisions based on the information he had available to him.

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