Dan Shak Big Winner on Day 1 of Poker After Dark High Stakes Hybrid
Poker After Dark is back this week on PokerGO with three nights of a $100,000 buy-in “High Stakes Hybrid” cash game. The new format is a $100,000 freezeout cash game with no rebuys allowed. Blinds start at $200/$400 and go up three times during the course of play.
The first of three sessions featuring the new format played out on Tuesday with Doug Polk, Jason Koon, Mike Baxter, Brian Rast, Lauren Roberts, Brandon Steven, and Dan Shak taking to the felt. It was Shak who ultimately booked the biggest win, finishing the night $135,800 in the black.
Rast was the next biggest winner, banking $44,300, and Polk profited $37,900 on the session. Baxter was the only unfortunate one to bust out and with the new rules, he was not allowed to buy back into the game. The other two to take losses on the night were Roberts and Steven.
Highlights
Roberts' Legendary Fold
In one hand that played out with blinds at $200/$400, Roberts followed her read and made a “legendary” laydown against Dan Shak.
A "legendary" #PokerAfterDark lay down protects @PlayPokerLkAMan's # early in the "High Stakes Hybrid" opener. LIVE… https://t.co/p6EGB7h6DW
— PokerGO (@PokerGO)
In the hand, Steven raised to $1,200 under the gun with 10♣8♣, Shak three-bet to $4,500 in the next position with A♠A♦, and Roberts defended her big blind with A♣K♦ and Steven called as well. Commentator Ali Nejad immediately commented, “She doesn’t want to hit a pair,” meaning an ace or a king on the flop would give her a good, but second-best hand.
Sure enough, the 2♥K♠2♣ flop gave Roberts kings up with an ace-kicker, while Shak sat with aces up. It checked to Shak who continued for $10,000. Roberts made the call and Steven got out of the way, leaving it heads up to the 6♣ brick turn. Roberts checked again and Shak bet $25,000.
Roberts thought it over and sent her ace-king to the muck in less than 30 seconds. Shak showed his rockets to the table and Roberts reacted with, “That’s exactly what I thought.” She told the table she had ace-king and Shak responded with, “That’s a great fold.”
She said she thought it was kings or aces, and she was right. Koon’s comment, “What? You folded ace-king there? That’s legendary!” pretty much summed up the reactions from her tablemates.
Shak on Fire
In another hand that helped propel Shak to the biggest win of the night, blinds were $300/$600 and action folded to the blinds. Steven completed with 9♠7♣ and Shak checked his option with 10♥8♠. They took a flop of 6♥7♥2♦ and Steven bet $1,000 with top pair.
Shak called with his gutshot and overs and made the nuts on the 9♦ turn. Unfortunately for Steven, the same card gave him a second-best hand of two pair. He led $3,000 this time and Shak flat-called. The river was the K♠ and Steven opted to check. Shak bet $6,000 and Steven went for the check-raise to $14,000. Shak made it $35,000 and Steven thought for a while before eventually paying it off.
PokerGO posted a clip of the hand on Twitter.
An action turn and some river raises shoot @daniel_shak to the top of the #PokerAfterDark "HSH" leaderboard # https://t.co/iTmaeispWO
— PokerGO (@PokerGO)
Pro on Pro Action
One of the biggest pots of the night involved Koon and Rast during the $600/$1,200 blind level. Koon opened to $2,700 from the cutoff with A♦10♠ and Rast three-bet to $11,500 from the big blind with A♠K♣. Roberts commented, “Ooh it’s pro on pro action, I wanna watch this, pay attention.”
Koon decided to call and when the first three community cards came 6♦Q♦A♥ both players had flopped top pair with Rast having the best kicker. Rast bet $16,000 and Koon called to see the 5♠ on the turn, which changed nothing. Rast fired another $29,000 and after giving it some thought, Koon got away.
Baxter Busts
Late in the night, Baxter got his remaining $7,600 all in on the button with K♥10♦ and was called by Polk in the small blind with A♦6♥. The board ran out A♠3♣3♥9♣5♠ and Baxter’s day was done.
While he couldn't rebuy, Baxter did stick around to hang out and sweat some hands of his neighbors, Polk and Koon. He also triggered much interest from his tablemates regarding his vodka with olives drink order.
Don't worry @DougPolkPoker, we didn't know that was a real order either #OnionsAfterDark https://t.co/qLSNfHIGOc
— PokerGO (@PokerGO)
Not Steven's Night
Steven took another tough one when he opened to $2,700 with Q♦Q♣ from the cutoff and got calls from Koon in the small blind with K♦8♦ and Polk in the big blind with K♥8♣. The 3♦10♠2♦ flop gave Koon a flush draw and he check-called Steven’s $7,000 continuation bet. Polk got out of the way and the 7♦ turn completed the flush for Koon, who led out for $6,000.
Steven called with his overpair and queen-high flush draw. The Q♠ river gave Steven top set and Koon bet once more, this time $35,000. Steven found himself in another tough spot and again, he couldn’t get away. That pot put Koon back in profit for the night, and he ended up booking a $4,500 win.
Two Sessions to Go
The second $100K freezeout cash game with three blind increases begins at 6 p.m. EDT Wednesday with the same lineup, minus Roberts who has an international flight to catch. The third and final session of the High Stakes Hybrid will kick off Thursday at 6 p.m. EDT.
You can watch all the action live on PokerGO. If you do not already have a subscription, you can get one here.
