Every poker player will have a different opinion on what they believe to be the best feeling at the poker table. Some say it’s winning a poker tournament, while others claim it’s successfully executing a huge bluff on the river. However, most players relish in picking off a massive bluff with an insane hero call. During a high stakes cash game at the famous Bobby’s Room in the Bellagio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, poker vlogger Brad Owen finds himself in a difficult situation. His opponent puts him to the ultimate test on the river with a 3x pot bet! Will this be the time that Brad shows the world why he keeps crushing poker players by picking off the bluff, or will he fold the winning hand and miss his chance?
When playing against opponents you perceive as professional, world class poker players, you must assume they have extensively studied game theory optimal (GTO) strategies using poker solvers such as PeakGTO. Expect them to turn hands such as pairs with blockers into bluffs with big, polarizing bets, situations rarely seen in the lower stakes. This is because better poker players understand that overbets force their opponents into tougher decisions by offering worse odds to call with medium strength hands. In these scenarios, you need to be willing to make slightly lighter calls and accept that sometimes you will run into the nuts!
Brad Owen is a WPT ambassador and co-owner of The Lodge Card Club in Texas, he is a very successful YouTube poker vlogger with over 765,000 subscribers. His YouTube channel has had over 175,000,000 views. Primarily a cash game poker player Brad has started playing more live poker tournaments since the start of 2022. His lifetime total live poker tournament winnings are over $990,000. His biggest cash for $152,266 came in December 2023 where he finished 7th in the $50,000 WPT Alpha8, during the WPT World Championship at the Wynn, Las Vegas. Since 2022, Brad has played on over 29 live streamed cash games and has lost over $180,000.
The Bellagio poker room is a stylish 7,000 square feet space that houses 40 tables and two high limit areas, the most prominent of which is the Legends Room – an exclusive two-table enclave named to honor poker’s greatest players. This room was previously known as Bobby’s room, named after the legendary poker player Bobby Baldwin.
Preflop:
In a bomb pot, six players at the poker table put $200 each into the middle and head to the flop with completely random hands.
Flop – Jd Th 2d:
Brad Owen, seated in the small blind, is first to act with JTo holding a flopped top two pair. He checks, and the action folds around to the villain in the hijack, who decides to bet $300 with a mystery hand. The cutoff calls while the button folds. Brad then opts for a check raise to $2,000 with his two pair. The big blind folds, but the under the gun player cold calls with pocket queens for an overpair and a backdoor straight draw. The initial bettor in the hijack and the cutoff fold, leaving only two players that head to the turn.
Turn – 8s:
The turn brings in two possible straights, which causes Brad to slow down and check with his jacks and tens for two pair. Brad’s opponent leans on the side of caution and checks behind with his two ladies that have now picked up a backdoor gutshot straight draw.
River – Ac:
The A of clubs on the river brings in the broadway straight, but it means that the front door flush draw has bricked out. Brad knows his two pair may no longer be the best hand, so he checks for the last time. The under the gun player realizes that his two queens are unlikely to be good after the action on the flop. He decides to turn his hand into a bluff since he blocks both straights by holding two of the queens from the deck. He applies maximum pressure on Brad by putting him all in for $15,325, a bet that is almost three times the size of the pot! Will the OG poker vlogger be able to decipher this huge bluff and make a fantastic hero call, or will Brad lay down the winning hand and forfeit the pot to his opponent? Stay tuned to the end of this poker video to see what happens!
Jonathan Little analyzes live poker hands from TV poker shows such as Poker After Dark, Hustler Casino Live, The Lodge Poker Club & PokerGO. He also analyzes popular poker vloggers such as Rampage Poker, Brad Owen, Jaman Burton, Ashley Sleeth, Wolfgang Poker and others!
You will also find many poker hands on this channel that contain some of the biggest names in the poker world such as; Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, Doug Polk, Garrett Adelstein, Tom ‘Durrrr’ Dwan, Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates, Fedor Holz & many more!
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