High Roller Strategy: Fedor Holz and Chance Kornuth Break Down Their Big €10K Hand
The 2016 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final festival in beautiful Monaco is now well underway, with the Main Event continuing and the €50,000 Single-Day Super High Roller heading into a second day today where Ole Schemion (winner of the €100K Super High Roller already) and Fabion Quoss will finish their heads-up duel to decide a winner.
Speaking of the latter, Fedor Holz took fifth in the €50K for a €271,670 cash, following up a fourth-place showing and €169,000 score in last week’s €10,300 High Roller that helped kick off the festival.
Interestingly, while Holz finished fourth in that event he ended up playing the final hand of the tournament, as the remaining three players struck a deal thereafter to end the proceedings, with Chance Kornuth winning the trophy as chip leader.
And what an interesting hand it was.
As recounted by the PokerStars Blog, the blinds were 30,000/60,000 with a 5,000 ante when Holz limped from the cutoff, Sergey Lebedev called from the small blind, and Kornuth checked his option in the BB.
The flop came 4♣4♦2♣, and when checked to Kornuth fired 120,000 and only Holz called. The turn was the 2♦, Kornuth bet another 325,000, and Holz called once more, bringing the pot to almost 1.1 million.
The river was the 7♦, and this time Kornuth pushed all in. Holz had 1.2 million left, and after a long tank he called and watched Kornuth turn over Q♣2♠ for a full house. Holz had to show his hand, revealing he had Q♥10♥ for queen-high.
It was such an interesting hand, PokerNews’ Sarah Herring caught up with both Holz and Kornuth afterwards to get their thoughts.
“In the end, I end up having queen-high on a 2-2-4-4-7 board,” Holz explains. “And I figured he’s Chance, he could be bluffing, so I called.”
He also shares his thoughts about Kornuth’s possible range in that spot and how that prompted him to make the big call, something shared earlier with his Twitter followers:
After a crazy emotional roller coaster I put @ChancesCards on 35/36/56 and busted in 4th for 170k ☺️. GL everyone still in.
— Fedor Holz (@CrownUpGuy)
“It doesn’t really matter what hand I have,” says Holz. “If I have aces, or queen-high, or king-high, it doesn’t really change anything.” Take a look:
Kornuth, meanwhile, responded to Holz’s tweet and the gutsy call he made:
@CrownUpGuy honestly ur call might be plus EV. Gg my friend. I hope you do well in the ONE HUNDRED K!!!!
— Chance Kornuth (@ChancesCards)
Then Kornuth spoke with Sarah about the hand, too.
“I actually kind of expected him to have exactly what he had — maybe king-high or queen-high, like Broadway dominators” says Kornuth. “It was a situation where he never thought I’d lead a four, so he thought it was a deuce or air, but in reality I probably shove the diamonds as well because the backdoor flush got there.”
Kornuth adds that he remembered “a couple of times during the tournament I had bet-bet-shoved into people that were shorter-stacked than me — and I was bluffing — and I think that probably played into it a little bit as well.”
The hand discussion starts at about the 2:30-mark — take a look:
It was a fascinating hand to consider. What are your thoughts regarding it? Share them in a comment below.
And also, be sure to take a look at Holz’s recent, hilarious six-second “How to Win at Poker!!!” video, which brings to mind the last installment of The Weekly PokerNews Strategy Quiz titled “It’s Always 50-50.”
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