WPH #564: This Is SO AWKWARD!!!!

Some people will never hit a royal flush or even a straight flush throughout their entire career. However, Slick Ric doesn’t need to worry about that as during a cash game on Hustler Casino Live, he manages to river a straight flush against Big John and Dylan. Unfortunately for Big John, he has the ace-high flush and looks destined to get stacked. But will John even realize his hand can be beaten on the river. This is so awkward for him!

When playing in multiway pots, it is generally advised to use small bet sizes. No player will often have the full nut or range advantage, so smaller bet sizes allow you to bet with a slightly wider range of poker hands and more frequently. However, in live poker, it can be profitable to deviate from game theory optimal (GTO) poker strategy since you want to build the pot and poker players tend to call more often than they would online.

Eric Chang ‘Slick Ric’ is a professional poker player from Texas, USA. He has a successful Instagram page reporting on his poker journey which currently has over 270,000 followers. Chang has over $190,000 in live tournament earnings, with his largest cash of $52,880 coming from a sixth place finish in a $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event at the PokerAtlas Tour in Dallas. Chang has been coached by PokerCoaching founder Jonathan Little and the series is available right now to all PokerCoaching.com’s Premium members!

Hustler Casino Live is a full-scale, high-value poker production. Close to a million dollars was spent transforming the casino’s high-limit poker room, the Crystal Room, into the set of this new state-of-the-art live poker show. Hustler Casino Live looks more like coverage of a TV broadcast sporting event and appeals to those beyond the poker community. Unscripted and unedited, they host regular poker streams such as ‘Max Pain Monday’ and ‘Thirsty Thursday’. Some of the most notable poker players to have appeared on the show are Phil Ivey ‘The Tiger Woods of Poker’ ‘RaiseOnce’, Tom Dwan ’durrrr’, Phil Hellmuth ‘The Poker Brat’, Chris Moneymaker, Doug Polk ‘WCGRider, Garrett Adelstein ‘Gman’, Tony Guoga ‘Tony G’ and many more.

All players post a $25 ante in this game, but the player on the button posts $50. Action starts to the left of the button (small blind), and players need to cover the $50 ante to enter the pot.

Preflop: While playing the ante game, Dylan calls from the small blind with A9o before Big John raises to $300 out of the big blind holding AKo. Linglin calls from under the gun with KJ of spades as does Slick Ric from under the gun+1 with 76 of hearts. Fadi calls from the button holding JTo, which prompts Dylan to come along, and they head to the flop five ways.

Flop – 9h 8h 3h: The monotone flop sees Dylan check first after flopping top pair. Big John decides not to continuation bet with his two overcards and the nut flush draw. Linglin checks with just a backdoor straight draw before Slick Ric puts out a bet of $800, having flopped a flush and an open ended straight flush draw with his suited connector. Fadi folds his open ended straight draw and jack high flush draw, but Dylan calls with just a pair of nines. Big John comes along with the ace high flush draw and Linglin folds.

Turn – 5s: The three players see a 5 of spades fall on the turn. Dylan and John check, having not improved as Slick Ric fires out another bet, this time for $2,500 with his flush. Dylan doesn’t believe the story Slick Ric is telling and calls with just one pair. Big John calls with his overcards and heart draw.

River – Th: The ten of hearts on the river is disastrous for Big John as he improves to the ace-high flush while Slick Ric hits a ten high straight flush! Dylan checks as his pair of nines is now beaten by a lot of poker hands. Big John checks as well, perhaps wary of monsters under the bed and a possible straight flush. Slick Ric fires out a near pot-sized bet of $11,000 with the second nuts. Dylan quickly folds, and the action is on Big John