Melanie Weisner on Bluff Catching, Bet Sizing, and Board Reading
There's a new "jumbo" episode of the PokerNews Podcast available (Episode No. 487). In addition to an interview with Poker Hall of Famer Mike Sexton and other items, the show features an extended interview with poker pro and coach Melanie Weisner including a couple of great hand analyses with useful strategic insights.
Weisner talks through two different hands she played on Poker After Dark during "Femme Fatale" week on PokerGO. The first involves Weisner and the highly-accomplished Kathy Liebert who, as Weisner notes in her set-up, had been playing somewhat loose prior to this hand.
With the blinds $100/$200 in this cash game with a $20,000 minimum buy-in, Weisner opened from under the gun with Q♥Q♦, then Liebert three-bet from the cutoff with A♣10♦. Weisner chose just to call the reraise, and with $6,500 in the middle the flop came 8♠6♦7♣.
Each postflop street would go similarly, with Weisner checking and Liebert firing barrel after barrel. The first was for $3,000, with Weisner calling. Then after the K♥ turn Weisner check-called another $7,000 from Liebert.
The river was the 5♥, meaning Liebert finished with ace-high. Weisner checked once more, and Liebert gave Weisner a tough test by betting $21,000. Weisner talks through her decision a bit in the clip below, with Leibert also engaging in some interesting table talk as Weisner tries to decide what to do:
She was ## close to folding, but @PokerKat's third barrel can't get past @MelanieWeisner. Weisner is now up over $1… https://t.co/JQrO7NOpXV
— PokerGO (@PokerGO)
On the podcast (starting just about the one-hour mark), Weisner offers a fuller discussion of her thought process in the hand. Weisner focuses in particular on her river decision and the pair's table talk — including how after Weisner told Liebert outright "I happen to have queens" Liebert interestingly responded "yeah, that's what I thought."
Liebert's bet-sizing with her third barrel — betting nearly 80 percent of the pot — also played a factor that ultimately encouraged Weisner to call.
Also discussed on the show is another hand from earlier the same episode show involving Weisner and 888poker Ambassador Sofia Lovgren playing what turned out to be a big $65K pot in which Weisner flopped a set, Lovgren turned a straight, then Weisner rivered a full house:
If @Sofia_Lovgren liked the turn, @melanieweisner loved the river. An over $65,000 pot builds in a flash and the "… https://t.co/6jUMTc6trX
— PokerGO (@PokerGO)
On the podcast the discussion of this hand begins around the 1 hour, 16-minute mark, with Weisner analyzing the action street-by-street and how ranges changed with Lovgren's bets and the changing board. Click here and check out the show.
