Ladies Night Gets Real: Kelly Minkin Five-Bet Jams With 7-2
Poker Night in America always puts on a good stream, but this past weekend was extra special.
Never mind the group of women who gathered for another entertaining "Ladies Night" episode at the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida — let's focus on one hand in particular.
We all saw during the 2018 World Series of Poker just how aggressive of a player Kelly Minkin can be. After all, she did pull an ace-jack bluff while on the feature table during the Main Event on her way to a 50th-place finish.
Well, last Friday Minkin did that one better. This time, though, it was a $25/$50 cash game and she was holding seven-deuce offsuit — and jamming $10K to the center. Intrigued?
Playing with seven-deuce may sound insane, but you should also know that this group was playing the "7-2 game" in which winning a hand with seven-deuce meant everyone at the table would owe that winner $100 each.
The hand began with Lily Kiletto being dealt A♥K♥ in the hijack seat and raising to $150. Both the button and small blind called. Minkin then looked down at 7♠2♥ in the big blind and squeezed with a $600 three-bet.
This is where things get interesting.
Jonathan Little was on the commentary and reminding viewers throughout the hand to keep in mind the players' stack sizes. Minkin started with a little more than $10,000 in her stack while Kiletto began with about $24,000.
So could we really see Minkin all in for $10K holding only 7-2? Take a look and watch for yourself:
As expected, Kiletto tossed out a four-bet to $1,800 and both the button and small blind got out of the way. Before Danielle Andersen (the SB) even fully folded her cards, Minkin announced an all-in five-bet jam with her 7♠2♥.
Kiletto asked for an exact count, then took over three minutes to decide what to do. Along the way, Kiletto showed her A♥ in an effort to improve her read on Minkin. Ultimately, though, she let the hand go, and Minkin earned not only the pot but the additional spoils for having pulled off the bluff with 7-2.
Afterwards, Kiletto described to PokerNews what she was thinking about while making her decision either to call or fold to Minkin's shove.
"Well, to further explain my thought process with this debauchery of a hand here it goes," she began.
"When Kelly five-bet jammed with this optimal 7-2 hand, it never even occurred to me she could be bluffing. I was running through all the hands I could possiblity be racing with. In the end, I put her on A-A or K-K and decided to pick another spot."
As it turned out, Kiletto's revealing of her A♥ proved meaningful when making her decision.
"What made me fold was when I flipped over one ace and she still was excited about her hand," explained Kiletto. "I also thought if I got stuck in this game and being the only 'fish' (playing every single hand), it was going to be difficult to recover. If it was later in the game, I definitely would have called because our table was far from being nitty."
In the end, it was a "right place, right time" scenario for Minkin, and Kiletto was complimentary of her for having seized the opportunity.
"[Putting] everything into the equation, Kelly had very good timing," said Kiletto. "Plus she is a very good player and has earned the title of being a ladies cash game event champ in my eyes."
MY INTENTION FOR THIS GAME WAS TO WREAK HAVOC ON THESE LADIES.
Kelly Minkin even weighed in on the big move by saying that her intention before entering this event was to "wreak havoc on these ladies and uphold my gangster image."
In an exclusive with PokerNews, Minkin went on to say that she felt like it was the perfect spot to make such a move.
"I know that Lily loves to gamble and open/raise light, so I thought there was a good chance she had a marginal hand that she could fold."
But then we all saw Kiletto go into the tank for just over three minutes. It was during that time that Minkin realized she was not in good shape but still was confident that she'd be "winning the hand whether there was a runout or not."
Even after seeing Kiletto's ace face-up, Minkin says she was certain that she'd be getting the fold. "Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would be ace-king suited! She ends up mucking and it was incredible. The look on the ladies' faces was priceless... minus the $100."
The entire "Ladies Night" cash game session can be viewed over on the Poker Night in America Twitch channel.
