Let’s look at an example of that classic poker concept, ‘playing the player not the cards’. This hand was played between Barry Greenstein, 2008 WSOP Main Event winner Peter Eastgate and internet phenomenon Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan. We’re going to focus on durrrr’s play in the hand and how he plays the players to absolute perfection at the highest stakes.
(Hand starts at 4:35)
Before the flop Greenstein raises from under the gun. Dwan knows Greenstein’s been playing tight and is confident that from early position with aggressive players behind him he is playing a strong range of hands. Backing his knowledge of the player he decides to enter the pot with Qc-Tc. He doesn’t reraise as this would give Greenstein the chance to four-bet a very strong hand.
Almost everyone else at the table then enters the pot behind him. The 2c-Td-2s flop actually gives Peter Eastgate trips with his 4h-2d. Greenstein leads out and Dwan immediately decides to raise with top pair. This is a pure bluff as he knows his hand is behind Greenstein’s range, however he’s confident he can get Barry to lay down an overpair and knows the Ten in his hand makes it highly unlikely Greenstein has pocket Tens.
The action folds round to Eastgate who cold calls with his trips. The problem for him is that this effectively turns his hand face-up. After all what else could he cold call with here? Barry also decides to call.
The turning point
On the turn Peter and Barry both check. Dwan thinks before deciding to bluff. His knowledge of Peter Eastgate is crucial at this point. He’s been able to beat up on Eastgate in this session and has also seen Eastgate check down a hand he should probably have value-bet. He knows Peter hasn’t played in this big a cash game before, that he has bought in too deep and is now playing a little scared. He may also have picked up that Peter’s body language when calling on the flop wasn’t confident. The question he has to answer is can he get Eastgate to lay down his trips which, at this point, he almost certainly holds. His raise on the flop shows he already thinks he can get Barry to lay down an overpair. After more thought he decides to bluff the turn. His read of both players turns out to be right and they both fold the better hand.
The fascinating thing to ask yourself is do you think durrrr could have fired the river if Eastgate had called? We’ll never know because his knowledge of Peter Eastgate and Barry Greenstein as players was so good in this situation that he scooped the $133,500 pot on the turn.