Hold'em with Holloway, Vol. 115: Daniel Negreanu Rips My Seven-Six Offsuit Call
Table Of Contents
In last week's Hold'em with Holloway column, I talked about an interesting hand I played in the 2019 WSOP Bracelet Winners Only Event and asked the hosts of the DAT Poker Podcast — Adam Schwartz, Terrence Chan, and Daniel Negreanu — to give me their thoughts about it.
Both Chan and Schwartz were kind enough to share their opinions, but Negreanu was unable to respond to me before publication. However, this past week Negreanu did offer his thoughts on the new episode of DAT Poker Podcast, and I wanted to share them here as well.
The Hand
To review the hand, in Level 5 (300/600/600) Blair Hinkle raised from under the gun to 1,500. Ron Ware (8,000) called from the button and I was in the small blind with 7x6x-offsuit. With approximately 55,000 to start I called as well, and Vitaly Lunkin (50,000) also came along from the big blind.
The flop came Qx2x4x with one diamond. Everyone checked and the dealer burned and turned the 5♦ to put two diamonds on board. I bet 2,000 with my up-and-down straight draw and much to my surprise I received three calls.
A 3x-offsuit river then gave me the nuts, but also put four to a straight on the board. I opted to check hoping one of my three opponents behind me would bet. As it happened, all three players checked behind and Ware tabled Ax10x for a wheel. I tabled my bigger straight and both Lunkin and Hinkle mucked.
My question to the DAT Poker Podcast team was should I have led out for value, or is this a good place to go for a possible check-raise?
Click here for what Terrence and Adam had to say.
Negreanu Weighs In
Much like Terrence did, Negreanu was quick to harp on my decision to even play the hand in the first place.
"Before we move onto the flop I'm gonna jump right in here and go, why?" he said right off the top. "What are you doing...? This isn't a small raise — it's 2.5x from the under-the-gun player and now you're dealing with a short-stack player who is going to have a pretty solid range and you have six-seven offsuit. You're guaranteed a three-way pot which could now be four because you're pricing in the big blind."
"Six-seven offsuit in this position, I just don't think you should've even been involved here."
"You're out of position against three players and you have 6x7x offsuit," Negreanu continued. "I'm gonna tell you, six-seven suited I think it's a call, but it's close. It's not that easy of a call here even with six-seven suited. Six-seven offsuit in this position, I just don't think you should've even been involved here. From the big blind you're getting a much better price and you also get to close the action, so you can play a little more loose there."
Negreanu accurately summed my preflop decision by saying: "There's a mistake right there."
As it was, I did call and got to the river, which is where Negreanu continued his analysis.
"It's actually an interesting spot. I'm open to a lot of different things," he said. "I think it even wouldn't be a terrible spot to bet quarter-pot in the hopes of getting raised by a six, which you would if Vitaly did have one and you're going to ensure getting called by an ace, maybe somebody deciding to represent a six."
"I bet if you if you ran this through a solver it's going to suggest doing all of the above."
"I'm not saying that's ideal," he added. "I'm actually going to punch that one into a solver because I'm quite curious…. If this was like a $100K of the million-dollar buy-in and I'm playing against all geniuses, I don't think this is a spot that you can ever bet like 2x pot or 1.5x pot. I think a six might actually fold here…. I think [a] check is fine, I really don't think it's bad in the hopes of someone with an ace betting. It's such an interesting spot."
While I didn't get a clear-cut answer, I was happy to learn that checking wasn't inherently wrong. In fact, it was a bit reassuring to hear that considering a check in that spot was something I should be doing.
"I bet if you if you ran this through a solver it's going to suggest doing all of the above," Negreanu said. "It's going to say check sometimes, it's going to say quarter-pot, pot, and maybe even some 1.5x."
To hear Negreanu's full hand analysis, plus more great content from the rest of their team, listen to DAT Poker Podcast here.
