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A popular hand between Alec Torelli and Doug Polk at the Bike
Both solid pros and have popular YouTube channels
They both have reviews of this hand
Polk will play exploitative but he is more GTO
Alec knows GTO dead and will default to it but if he has a feel he will play exploitative
Alec will make hero calls

25, 50 cash game with a $100 straddle

Alec opens for $325 with J♣J♠

Doug raises from the button to $1025 with T♣8♣

To the flop

That is something Alec says on all his videos

A♠2♠7⋄

Alec checks, Doug bets $1250, Alec flats

Turn 3⋄

Alec checks, Doug bets $3175; Alec calls

River K♥

Alec check; Doug bets $6350, Alec makes a big call and takes down the pot

I get there are not a lot of poker mathematicians on this site. Doug goes to great length to justify the river bet on GTO. He says if he does not bet here then he cannot get enough GTO bluffs in. Is this proper GTO from Doug?

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Will answer my own. I am really hoping for a good support of Doug's play.

On the river from a GTO perspective Doug should be bluffing 1/4 of the time he bets. Not 1/4 period - for every 3 value bets one bluff.

Skipping GTO I just think it is a bad bluff. If Alec called the flop and turn he is calling the river. That king is a good card for him as he was already beat by AK. As Antonio Esfandiari says your story is not adding up.

I get playing 86s in position. I think GTO broke on flop. Doug is going to need to fire three times and get a fold 49% of the time for GTO to work. There is no backup plan. All he has is a back door straight draw and you are not sure spades are good.

You can get 1/4 bluffs in your range with hands that have equity like 86 spades or even 86 diamonds. To say need to play out a total blank to get in GTO is trying to save face - IMHO. I think Dave had it so in his mind pre flop that he was going to outplay Alec that he did not come off the hand when the cards were just not working. My opinion is that you can be stubborn with semi bluffs and get your quota of GTO bluffs in. Say he had 86 spades he still loses but he 3 barreled with a backup plan and you still get enough GTO bluffs in.

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  • Interesting question. Are you saying that you think a person's bluffing range on the flop or turn should be weighted more to hands with some equity versus hands with no equity? – Dr.DrfbagIII Mar 7 '17 at 21:37
  • @Dr.DrfbagIII Well yes in general I would rather bluff with outs. In reference to the question not exactly. If you listen to Polk what he is trying to say is he HAD to fire with no equity because you do not get enough hands with equity to satisfy GTO. You only need like 1/4 of your hands for GTO bluff and I think there are plenty of hands with some equity to get you there on that type of board. For one the flush draw that matches your hand will happen 1/4 of the time. If you have a defense for Polk from a GTO perspective I would hope you will post it. – paparazzo Mar 7 '17 at 22:04

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