Ivey's Bluff on HSP

This is what Ivey does, and why he's the best.

The details below are from this article in Cardplayer, from a hand in yesterday's broadcast of High Stakes Poker:

Barry Greenstein opened to a $5,500 preflop raise with Q 10. Ivey, who had just won the previous pot after firing a double-barrel bluff against Andrew Robl, decided to ignore the value of his cards once more, re-raising to $18,000 with his 5 2.

That’s when Veldhuis decided to get involved — four-betting the action to $51,600 preflop with his K J.

To his credit, the Dutch pro showed moxie throughout his episodes on High Stakes Poker this season, constantly getting involved in the action and running more than a few bluffs against his tablemates. Unfortunately, for him, his competitors seemed to pick up on his aggression and turned it against him on contless occasions.

All the same, it seemed implausible that he would fail on this hand. Reading the situation excellently, Veldhuis put himself in position to win a nice-sized pot without even needing to see a flop.

But he was facing Ivey, and with Ivey, nothing is implausible.

The audience was reminded of that fact after the action returned to the Full Tilt pro once Greenstein got out of the way. Ivey asked how much more Veldhuis had behind in his stack, a question that seemed to HSP host Gabe Kaplan and probably most people who were watching to be a little bit of Hollywooding.

But after Veldhuis responded, “One-forty something,” Ivey pushed all in.

After seemingly making the determination that Veldhuis had enough behind to fold, Ivey five-bet preflop with just five-high. And sure enough, he was right. Veldhuis sighed and threw his hand into the muck.

Kaplan called it “one of the great bluffs in the history ofHigh Stakes Poker.”

2BA