It's a bit of a slow news day in the poker world so I thought that I would recap a couple of rather monstrous hands that were played by "ThePayback1" since roughly the beginning of February.
Apparently "ThePayBack1" is the same player that plays on the "ADZ124" account on Pokerstars. "ADZ124" is certainly one of the best high stakes No Limit Hold'em players on Pokerstars, and has been beating up opponents on that site for some time. He is super-aggressive and can withstand some pretty large swings due to his massive bankroll.
Anyways, "ThePayback1" has been involved in a couple of really big pots in the 25/50 No Limit Hold'em games on Full Tilt Poker in the past few weeks. Pots the size of at least 10 full buy-ins.
The first pot involved Mike Matusow, and occurred right near the end of January. Both players had been doing very well at the table. Matusow had a stack of $24k, and "ThePayback1" had a stack of $37k.
"ThePayback1" was dealt pocket nines and raised pre-flop. Matusow had pocket kings and re-raised, and "ThePayback1" called.
The flop came 5 9 K, an absolutely disastrous flop for "ThePayback1". "ThePayback1" checked, Matusow bet $850, "ThePayback1" re-raised to $2950, Matusow re-raised to $5050, "ThePayback1" pushed and Matusow snap-called with his top set. Matusow has taken some pretty colossal beats online in the past (quad nines vs straight flush ring a bell?), and was surely holding his breath even though "ThePayback1" had only one out. The turn brought an 8 and the river brought the four of spades, and Matusow took down the $49k pot.
That was simply an unlucky hand for "ThePayback1", and there wasn't anything that he could really do about it. I don't know of any player that would fold there.
The next big hand that occurred? Not so sure about that one.
Again, $25/50 No Limit Hold'em game on Full Tilt Poker. This hand took place yesterday.
"ThePayback1" has another huge stack of just over $28k. His opponent in the hand, "scout315", has an even bigger stack of $35k.
"ThePayback1" is dealt pocket aces and raises to $388 preflop. "scout315" is in the big blind and calls holding J-9 offsuit.
The flop comes 3 8 7, a seemingly good flop for "ThePayback1". "scout315" checks, "ThePayback1" bets $801, and "scout315" calls, holding a gutshot straight draw.
The turn card is the ten of hearts, giving "scout315" the nuts. He leads out for an amusing $50 bet. "ThePayback1" raises it up to $1877. "scout315" re-raises to $8,034. Obviously "ThePayback1" wasn't buying what "scout315" was selling, so he pushed all-in. "scout315" thanked his lucky stars and called, likely thinking that he was up against a set. He couldn't believe his eyes when "ThePayback1" held only pocket aces, leaving "ThePayback1" drawing completely dead. "scout315" took down the massive $56k pot.
Now, relatively speaking these pots weren't "huge" when compared to a $200/$400 game on the site. But given the size of the pots in relation to the BB, they were absolutely gigantic. An 1100+ BB pot? That is definitely notable in a $25/$50 game.
We're not trying to pick on "ThePayback1" here or anything - he is a great player that obviously had played very well up until that point. But to lose a $56k pot and $48k pot playing a $25/$50 ring game within a couple of weeks is quite something.
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Filed Under: Cash Game Results