Dwan, Greenstein and Eastgate

High Stakes Poker, Season 5, 2009. Eight players at the table.

Eight players see the flop

Why it is famous

PokerNews ranked it the best High Stakes Poker hand. Tom Dwan raised into seven players with top pair on a paired board and made both a pair of aces and trip deuces fold. Gabe Kaplan said only "maybe the late Stu Ungar" would try it.

What to take from it

In a multiway pot, a raise on a paired board means trips far more often than a bluff. This time it did not.

The hand

Negreanu K♦4♦

Eastgate 4♥2♦

Brunson A♠9♣

Greenstein A♥A♣

Dwan Q♣10♣

Benyamine 3♣3♥

Elezra J♦9♠

Sahamies 7♥6♠

Before the flop

Blinds 400 and 800. Negreanu has the button.

Greenstein raises to 2.5K.

Dwan calls.

Benyamine calls.

Elezra calls.

Sahamies calls.

Negreanu calls.

Eastgate calls.

Brunson calls.

The flop

Board 10♦2♣2♠

Eastgate checks.

Brunson checks.

Greenstein bets 10K.

Dwan raises to 37.3K.

Benyamine folds.

Elezra folds.

Sahamies folds.

Negreanu folds.

Eastgate calls.

Brunson folds.

Greenstein calls.

The turn

Board 10♦2♣2♠7♦

Eastgate checks.

Greenstein checks.

Dwan bets 104.2K.

Eastgate folds.

Greenstein folds.

Dwan wins the pot.

The decisions

Dwan. In an eight-way pot, top pair on a paired board is fragile. A raise thins the field, and from Dwan it says "I have a deuce."
Dwan. Both players called the flop raise, then checked the turn to him. Their hands look like an overpair or a ten, worried about a deuce. The bet keeps telling the trips story. Dwan won the pot with the third-best of the three hands.
Eastgate. Every deuce with a better kicker beats him, and Dwan’s raise into eight players, followed by another bet, looks exactly like a better deuce. Eastgate folded the best hand. A call would have won.
Greenstein. Aces are only one pair on a paired board, and Dwan’s raise into eight players, followed by another bet, looks like a deuce. Folding is a strong player’s play. Eastgate had already folded, so Greenstein folded the best hand left, and a call would very likely have won. It was a reasonable fold.

What the sources do not say. The stacks are not documented. Benyamine’s threes come from one report (clubs and hearts). Their effect on the numbers is tiny. Small differences exist between the sources (Dwan’s raise is $37,200 in one and the pot $133,200 in another). The figures used are the ones that add up. The episode number is not certain. One report gives Dwan’s cards as Q♥T♠ and another Greenstein’s aces as A♥A♠. The suits used are the ones most reports agree on.

Sources

Practise it in 5 minutes Play this hand, one decision at a time.

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