Poker Hand of the Week
Nik Airball wins $333,800 in a high-stakes poker showdown against Jennifer Tilly
In our Poker Hand of the Week we analyze the epic 5-Bet Shove Call by Nik Airball vs. Jennifer Tilly in a massive $333,800 Pot on No Gamble No Future.
Poker Hand of the Week Setup
The latest No Gamble No Future episode had an amazing line-up featuring the likes of Phil Hellmuth, Jennifer Tilly, Nik Airball, The Professor and Eli Elezra among others.
The game in question is NL $100/$200. Nik Airball has Jen easily covered at the start of our Poker Hand of the Week.
Poker Hand of the Week Action
Q♦7♠8♥7♣
Preflop:
Jennifer straddles to $400. Hellmuth limps, Elezra calls, and Nik Airball makes it $3,000 to go from the small blind with Q♦9♣.
Tilly now looks at A♥K♥ in the straddle and 3-bets to $10,400. Phil and Eli fold, but Airball comes back over the top to $31,000.
Jennifer Tilly shoves for $165,400 total sending Nik Airball deep into the tank.
After 70 seconds, he finally flicks in the call and is happy to see that he has a coin flip.
They decide to only Run It Once!
Runout:
The 8♣7♥J♦ flop is relatively safe for Nik Airball. It does bring Jen a backdoor flush and straight draw though and she still has 29%.
That changes drastically after the 2♦ turn as Tilly's odds to win the hand decrease to only 14%.
Jennifer needs an Ace or a King on the river, but the 2♥ is neither of them and Nik Airball wins a massive coin flip to scoop a huge $333,800 Pot.
Poker Hand of the Week Analysis
Interesting preflop spot. Let's go through it step by step.
Since there are two limpers, the 3x preflop raise from the small blind by Airball looks bluffy and could easily be an attempt to pick up the dead money.
So you don't have to give that raise too much credit, that's why Jennifer Tilly has an easy 3-bet here.
Once again, Tilly could only be on a resteal and in combination with the fact that Nik Airball is out of position this is a clear 4-bet.
Jen has 3.5x pot behind with AhKs and now a bit of a decision between calling and shoving. Usually this is an easy shove, but Nik is known for only running it once and suddenly a drawing hand such as AKs doesn't look great anymore.
Nevertheless, you don't want to call here, miss the flop and then having to fold the flop or turn, if you miss it.
Better to get it in and see all five cards, and that's what Jennifer does.
This move narrows down Airball's calling range considerably as Jen only does this with Aces, Kings, Queens, Ace-King and maybe Pocket Jacks.
Poker Hand of the Week Conclusion
The problem is, if Tilly has Aces or Kings then you are basically dead plus you are losing to her value range, that's why this is actually a pretty tough decision for Nik Airball.
Folding Pocket Queens preflop is hard, often not a good play and there is a small chance that you are ahead against hands such as Jacks, Ace-King or the occasional A4s or A5s GTO solver play.
However, the latter is highly unlikely when your opponent is Jennifer Tilly and that basically leaves us with Aces, Kings, Queens, Jacks and Ace-King.
A range against which Nik Airball is a slight underdog, but he decides to make a gutsy call and in this case gets rewarded by scooping a massive pot.
