Online poker was very popular in 2021.

We keep track of their most bizarre giveaways as you can watch through our first, next, and third installments in this four-part series on the craziest cash game giveaways of 2021.

The final poker hand of this streak is an especially bizarre one (certainly not jelqing approved) between two of the world’s greatest players.

Let’s plunge!

Preflop

The game is played in no-limit hold’em. In this distribution, we only know for sure what LuckyCPS had.

• Stefan11222 raises the button to $ 200. Zas91 calls from the small blind.
• The effective stack is about $ 32,000 (320 big blinds deep).

Preflop investigation

Stefan prefers a fairly small preflop lift. Ideally, you should raise a little more to give up some equity, especially when you consider that there is a 20 ante paid by 6 players. But perhaps, in this case, Stefan’s poker hand needed reasons to make him smaller.

Zas91, another strong routine, is now interested in having a decently wide calling range as the odds he gets are really high. But with $ 120 of ante calling with some hands against such a small size, it looks good.

LuckyCPS gets amazing pot odds in the big blind (6.2 to 1). He must be calling about almost everything.

Flop

• The flop comes 9 ♣ 6 ♥ 2 ♦. Currently, 720 of them are sold.
• Zas91 and luckyCPS (J ♣ 8 ♠) check to Stefan11222, who continually bets $ 143. 
• Both Zas91 and LuckyCPS are calling.

Flop analysis

Having said that, using this small size doesn’t make a lot of theoretical sense here. There are indeed many hands in both players’ ranges that stand to be predictable against this type of paltry bet.

Let’s look at Stefan’s small bet from a theoretical and practical point of view.

The theory is that Stefan, ideally, might want to encourage both players to fold their overcards and backdoor flush draws, or put those hands in a difficult position. But these hands can call easily and profitably if he bets 20% of his winnings. This is the same as preflop – Stefan used a tiny pruning to essentially force many of his opponents’ ranges to continue or risk overfold.

In Practice: This strategy can have some benefits in practice, as it is probably not intuitive to understand how widely you need to defend against a 20% continuation bet in a multi-pot. Moreover, it is unlikely that a player will check-raise aggressively enough to deny Stefan’s fairness. In general, truly compact games may be the best approach in these circumstances.

Zas91’s calling range will consist of aces high, two overcards, straight draws, and pairs.

Even though LuckyCPS doesn’t have much, it is popular in the field due to its stellar pot odds. He just needs to (realize) ~ 12% of the capital. He has an overcard, a mid-card overcard, and a double back door straight draw. Fold and call here have approximately the same mathematical expectation (EV). Having a backdoor flush draw would make it a call.

Turn

• The flip comes to the T♥, making the board 9♣ 6♥ 2 ♦ T♥. The pot is now $1,150.
• Zas91 checks, luckyCPS (J♣ 8♠) contributes $377. 
• Stefan11222 raises to $1,137. Zas91 re-raises to $3,035. 
• LuckyCPS calls. 
• Stefan11222 re-re-raises to $7,000. 
• Zas91 calls. 
• LuckyCPS calls.

Toggle investigation

INSANE ACTION!

LuckyCPS has the potential to create a donking range in this area because he has almost all 87 combinations (eg offsuit), while Stefan and Zasa will only have 87 suited.

That said, it is very difficult to determine exactly what Don King’s range should be, and it will also be very difficult to balance the play on the next street. If he really wants to use the donk choice, J-8 is a great candidate for that, since it’s a nut draw along with an overcard for the top pair.

Stefan makes a very small raise, which means that his opportunities are combined with a few bluffs. This makes sense if you think that Zas91’s range is still unlimited, and thus Stefan is deprived of the incentive to polarize himself with a big raise.

If Zas91 3-bets here, he is 87-suited. He could balance that range with a poker hand like 98-suited or 76-suited.

The LuckyCPS phone is absurd at the moment. I simply cannot find or consider a rational justification for this choice. He is behind the player’s collections and does not always have enough equity to call. This is a really big mistake.

Stefan’s re-re-raise symbolizes the same range that Zas91 represented.

Calling Zasa means he probably doesn’t trust Stefan and is going to bluff with 98 or even 76.

LuckyCPS makes an even worse decision than just calling. While he has very good pot odds, he just doesn’t always have equity or sufficient implied odds.

River

• LuckyCPS lives to his name as the river comes 7♣, which makes the board 9♣ 6♥ 2♦ T♥ 7♣. The pot is $22,150.
• LuckyCPS shows J♣ 8♠ along with Stefan mucks. LuckyCPS scoops the $28,350 pot.

River assessment

LuckyCPS’s management is pretty smart. He expects none of these players to expect him to own the over directly when Stefan could have gotten it. Since Stefan could have it, it is likely that he could turn his straight into a bluff by pushing all-in and sometimes getting CPS and Zas91 lucky to fold the exact same poker hand.

This will not happen this time, and we will never know what Stefan or Zas needed in this hand.

We see luckyCPS using his obvious high skill to maneuver in the awful spot he put himself in, trying to minimize overall EV losses.

Summarization

Crazy poker hand along with luckyCPS lived up to his alias by eating one of the two cards that give him the nuts on the lake. It happens sometimes.