Mariano likely just won the largest pot of his career when he flopped a king-high straight flush on Hustler Casino Live against fellow HCL regular Andy Stacks. Fortunately for Mariano, Andy has the one hand that would pay him the full double — an ace-high flush.
In this strategy column, I will discuss how Mariano should bet on the flop in this multiway hand in a four-bet pot as there are plenty of hands that would still call on the flop. Mariano makes a good bet on the turn, I think he should use a larger bet size now that we are on the turn, as it is harder to extract a lot of value from two streets rather than three.
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The hand kicked off at stakes of $100/$200/$200 with Mariano opening to $500 from under the gun with K♦10♦. Action folded to Charles on the button, who three-bet to $2,000 with 8♥7♥. Andy then decided to call in the big blind with A♦4♦. Mariano then four-bet to $9,000 as both opponents called.
Charles and Andy played this straightforwardly preflop, while Mariano mixed it up a bit by deciding to four-bet instead of calling with king-ten suited.
Incredibly, the flop landed J♦9♦Q♦ to give Mariano a straight flush while also giving Andy the nut flush. All three players checked on the flop.
In a four-bet pot on this board, it is so likely that someone has the ace of diamonds or something that connected with the board. For this reason, I think Mariano needs to start building the pot, while Andy should be checking his entire range and Charles should be giving up with his air.
Andy checked again on the 3♥ turn and Mariano bet $8,000. Charles got out of the way and Andy check-raised to $35,000.
I like Andy’s check because he is unlikely to be outdrawn since most people would bet this flop with two pair or a set. Mariano needs to start betting and should bet a little larger since he needs to find a way to get money into the pot. Mariano just called with his super nuts.
This is a rough spot for Andy because it is hard to find hands you are getting value from that would check back the flop, but he needs to get money in the pot with his nut flush. I think it is fine for Andy to check-raise.
Once he gets check-raised, Mariano definitely wants to slow play by calling given that the best hand his opponent can have is an ace-high flush or a set. He cannot lose, so he wants to do everything he can do keep Andy in the pot.
The river brought a fourth diamond with the 6♦ and Andy led out for $120,000 with less than that in the pot. Mariano quickly moved all in for another $137,000 and Andy called before seeing the terrible news.
What would you do with the ace-high flush on the river facing an all-in for $137,000?
I think Andy got a little greedy with this bet because Mariano can easily get away from his hands that are worse than a set. But, this is a very tough spot and I can see why Andy would be large here with the effective nuts.
You may think Andy is committed to calling since he has the ace-high flush and is getting good odds, but he needs to think what hands Mariano will get to the river with and snap all in. There aren’t a lot of hands that make sense as a bluff other than pocket tens with the ten of diamonds since he would be blocking straights and flushes.
For more on this hand, check out my breakdown in the following video:
Jonathan Little is a professional poker player and author with over $7,000,000 in live tournament earnings. He writes a weekly educational blog and hosts a podcast at JonathanLittlePoker.com. Sign up to learn poker from Jonathan for free at PokerCoaching.com. You can follow him on Twitter @JonathanLittle.
