Slow play quads or start betting? When big hands fail to get big value
Not too long ago, we were sharing how the PokerStars video team had unearthed the “Top 5 Epic Quads Hands.” In each case we saw players going for maximum value with their monsters, and generally succeeding.
This week the team has found another collection of hands in which players make quads, only this time things don’t go quite as well for the quads makers.
The video shared below is titled “When Players Misplay Quads,” although in a few cases there might be room for debate over whether or not these missed opportunities qualify as misplays.
In any case, when watched together these hands demonstrate how tricky it can be sometimes to build big value from big hands.
One theme established early on is the player who makes quads opting to slow play, then finding it hard later on ever to get value.
Such is shown in the first hand involving Brian Kaufman and Raffaele Sorrentino from the final table of the 2017 PokerStars Championship Barcelona Main Event.
Something similar happens in the second hand as well between Nicholas Bamman and Roger Spets from a 2007 APPT Philippines event. An all-in finally comes on the river (which does not get called), but watch and decide whether more value might have been gained.
Per Ummer is in the spotlight in the third hand, making quads on a very wet board in a four-way pot and having difficulty getting paid. That one is another blast from the past, coming from an EPT Baden Classic in 2006.
Hand number four comes from the 2014 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event and involves Owen Crowe and Andre De Oliveira. Unlike all the other hands in which players hold pocket pairs, in this case Crowe is the one with a pocket pair (kings), but De Oliveira with ace-nine makes four of a kind when three aces land on the flop.
It’s the nuts versus second-nuts, but again the player with quads has difficulty getting value.
The last hand comes from the final table of the 2011 Los Angeles Bounty Shootout and involves Ali Eslami, Shane Schleger, and Matt Woodward.
This one demonstrates an opposite approach as the player flopping quads bets out rather than slow plays, but in this case perhaps slowing down might have been recommended.
Watch and decide for yourself how you would have proceeded with quads in these hands.
