Brunson vs Benefield

Recently, the poker TV audience has become a lot more discerning. It turns out that, after the 452nd time, finding out who wins the Ace-King versus pocket-eights ‘race’ isn’t actually that entertaining.
And by ‘isn’t that entertaining’, I mean ‘makes you want to scratch out your corneas for want of something more exciting to do’. Thankfully, the bigwigs in charge of TV poker have kept up with their audience and deep-stacked poker, including a lot of real cash games, is becoming increasingly available and popular.

This has given us an amazing insight into how the game’s leading lights play down the streets – for some it has enhanced their reputation, for others it’s been something of a trousers-down experience. In this article, we’ll look in-depth at a hand played in a recent TV cash game and gain some strategy insights from some of the best in the business.

David ‘Raptor’ Benefield vs Doyle Brunson

Some of the most fascinating encounters have been between old-school live grinders and internet phenoms. This hand took place on Poker After Dark between internet star David ‘Raptor’ Benefield and the ‘Big Papa’, Doyle Brunson.

THE ACTION

Pre-flop in this six-handed game, Raptor is acting from the cut-off and, with a straddle of $800 on the $400 blind, raises to $2,600 with 6h-5d. Doyle flat calls from the button with Kc-Jh. These two take the flop head-up, which comes 6s-6d-Kh. Bingo! Raptor has hit gin. Not only does he hold trips but Doyle also made top pair. David bets $4,200 into the $7,200 pot and Doyle again flat calls, making a pot of $15,600.

The turn brings a blank 8d. David bets $10,600, and again Doyle just flat calls. There is $36,800 in the pot. The river brings Js. Without him knowing it, things just got much better for Benefield – now Doyle has improved and will feel he beats Raptor’s King hands. Raptor makes a value bet of $25,600. Doyle raises to $65,600 – turning this big pot into a monster. There’s $128k in the middle and it’ll cost Raptor $40k to call. He’s getting over 3/1 on his money – but how good can his trips be in the face of this river raise? Raptor lays down the best hand – folding his trip-sixes and showing the table his 6. Doyle rakes the big pot, having accidentally bluffed David off the best hand.

DAVID’S PERSPECTIVE

This is a standard hand until the river, when there are real fireworks. You could argue that 6-5 offsuit isn’t the best hand against good opponents, but with the straddle on and so much dead money in the pot, most players are going to open with this in the cut-off. When David hits his hand on the flop he’s always going to be looking to get paid rather than doing anything trappy – he has an active image at the table and has basically flopped the nuts, so it’s a perfect spot.
His value bets on all three streets are super standard given the strength of his hand and his image, and are well-sized to get paid by Doyle with exactly the type of hand he has. It’s the type of board where he is unlikely to get paid by a weak hand, so it makes sense to get all the value he can.

When he gets raised on the river it’s a really ugly spot. It’s one of those bizarre ‘relative strength’ situations in hold’em where your holding looked like a monster but with your opponent raising instantly shrivels to a pygmy. What can he now beat that has raised him? After all, his hand is supposed to look really strong – he’s bet all three streets.
Doyle’s play is consistent with a monster here – either bigger trips than Benefield’s hand or a flopped, turned or, very occasionally, rivered full house. After all, if Doyle held a medium-strength hand like K-Q, A-K, there doesn’t seem to be any value in raising as the opponent would call with all better hands and fold all bluffs and worse hands.

In his blog, David analysed his situation on the river as follows: ‘The only hand I can conceivably beat on the river here is K-J. That is it. One hand. There isn’t anything else that will call the flop, call the turn, tanking for like 90 seconds on the river then make a super itty-bitty raise, and with my range, I decided it would be absolutely terrible to value-raise K-J on the river in Doyle’s spot.’
It’s also a difficult spot for Doyle to be completely bluffing as he’d have to have called two streets on a draw-free board to make a play on the river. David says this is basically impossible, although it cannot be entirely ruled out because Doyle can occasionally make big moves.

The final thing to consider is David’s price on making the call. Around 3/1 in such a big pot is difficult to turn down and would probably sway a lot of players – after all, this is a big laydown to make. However, if David thinks Doyle is never bluffing here then he is crushed by Doyle’s river-raising range and his laydown is straightforward – after all, 3/1 is a terrible price when you hardly beat a hand.

DOYLE’S PERSPECTIVE

This is a pretty standard hand for Doyle – until the river. Pre-flop, he flat calls with K-J. It could be argued here that, with an active player having opened and a lot of dead money in the pot and position, three-betting is better. However, flat calling keeps in hands he dominates like J-10, J-9, so it has some benefits.

On the flop with top pair, calling the continuation bet seems standard. It allows Raptor to keep bluffing if he’s missed and control the pot if he’s behind.
The turn doesn’t change much and Doyle knows David’s aggression will mean he’ll often fire again. This is especially true if he thinks he can get Doyle to fold hands like 7-7. Folding this turn with top pair seems too weak – and again, raising doesn’t seem to accomplish much as we’d probably get called or re-raised by better hands but fold out all worse holdings with the possible exception of worse Kings.

On the river, Doyle makes two pair, so he’s outdrawn two hands in Raptor’s range – K-Q and A-K. Aces would still beat him as would all of David’s huge hands.
David bets the river, which conveys strength. Doyle can only be certain of him value-betting trips, full houses, and Aces. He may value-bet A-K and K-Q but he can’t be sure – after all, it’s slim that he’d be getting paid by worse with these hands. Of course, Benefield could be bluffing here, and probably is much of the time. He’s more than capable of representing a huge hand by firing three barrels, and Doyle has played his hand passively to encourage him to do this.

Given all of this, Doyle’s raise looks like a mistake. David’s range is very polarised between bluffs and monsters and this looks like a spot where Doyle gets called if he’s losing and gets a fold if he’s winning.

Of course, this assumes it’s a raise for value. There has been some speculation that Doyle raised not for value but to turn his two pair into a bluff. While not ruling this out, Doyle said that he thought it highly unlikely David had a 6, suggesting he was raising to eke out value from A-K or K-Q. It seems unlikely David would call a raise with these hands – and given that he folded a better hand (though trips with a five-kicker is close to A-K in effective strength) a value raise doesn’t look like it has merit in this spot.

In fact, the most accurate description of this bet would be an attempted value raise that is accidentally a phenomenally effective bluff.

SUMMARY

At first glance, this hand can look like Benefield has made a grave error – folding the best hand in a big pot after getting a good price on his river call. But on closer inspection his laydown on the river seems safe enough – though it’s fair to assume most players wouldn’t be able to make it. Doyle’s play may not be immediately bad but his river raise is a mistake that ends up working out beautifully for him.

Intriguingly, if you watch the video, when David announces he has a 6 and looks at Doyle, Doyle looks less than comfortable. Perhaps not enough to influence the hand but it’s fun to watch in replay and pick up on the information that even the top players give up.