Hand Analysis of Sam Trickett v Barry Greenstein at WSOP

Recently I entered a hand reading competition through one of the leading monthly poker magazines in the UK (it is highly possible that I read every single one of them) and I thought the hand interesting enough to describe my reading of the hand to you. Please comment if you agree/disagree and hopefully we will all get something beneficial from the discussion. The hand was played in the World Series of Poker Main Event in 2009, one of the biggest poker tournaments in the world between top uk poker pro Sam Trickett and the legendary Barry Greenstein.

The hand is as follows. $30,000 starting stacks with blinds 50/100. Barry raises to 300 and Trickett calls with 5h-3h. Flop is 2s-4h-9c. Greenstein continuation bets 450 and Trickett calls (Barry likes to c-bet). The turn is 6s making Tricketts straight. Greenstein checks, Trickett bets 800 and Barry re-raises to 2100. Trickett raises again to 6000 and Barry calls. River is 2c and Barry checks. What do you do as Trickett now that Barry has checked?

In my email response to the magazine which I hope earns me the set of chips as the prize winning entry I said that Trickett must check. I will describe below why I feel this way.

Greenstein is a tight player. The pre-flop action is not surprising but from middle position Greenstein is likely to hold something reasonable. I agree with Tricketts line that Greenstein would continuation bet a lot of the time so calling to the turn is fine. If we miss on the turn we can fold to a bet or take a free card to the river.

The turn card is 6s, giving us our straight. Barry checks so Trickett bets 800 expecting to take down the pot. Barry’s check raise is significant; he probably has something now, maybe a pocket pair like tens, jacks or better. But would he have checked with these hands on the flop hoping to check raise straight away? Possibly. Barry re-raise and then calling of Tricketts raise is the clearest indication yet of the strength of Barry’s hand. The flat call pre-flop by Trickett could have resulted in Sam hitting a set yet Barry re-raises anyway. Barry is out of position and betting so big suggests to me Barry flopped his set and is hoping Sam holds an overpair. I would suggest Barry has 44 at this point. Sam is happy building the pot with his hidden straight providing the board does not pair.

The river 2c pairs the board and Barry would now have the boat (full house). Barry checks to Trickett. This all but guarantees he has the best hand. Barry was the caller on the turn and would not call such a large amount to draw. He must have had the set already. The pairing of the board and then checking is giving Trickett rope to hang himself. Trickett must not bet into Greenstein who will probably check raise knowing he has the best hand. He is giving Trickett the chance to try and value bet because he knows he is safe no matter what and checking to showdown now is fine because it is so early in the poker tournament. Another reason for checking is that betting into Trickett completely gives away that despite all the dangers on the board he is still prepared to bet and therefore must have the full house betting into a double re-raiser out of position.

Checking also holds value for Trickett because the blinds are low enough to not bet at this point in the tournament. There will be spots where the action will give him the chance to value bet an opponent more likely to hold air than Barry Greenstein.

If I win the hand reading competition I will let you know. Comment below if you think that I have missed something or you see the hand differently. It is an interesting hand and if you do guess right what is going on congratulate yourself because many players would catch the straight and bet or die. Hopefully Trickett folded, if I am right in thinking Barry got a nice full house here.

By Malcolm Clarke