The Sanremo IPO which ended tonight with the victory of Alesso Albore had a truly unique final table.
The final deal to threewith which the two short stack yes they are in fact surrendered to the chipleader, handing him the first coin wholemeal to re-spread only second and third place, it was only there classic cherry on the cake.
Previously at the final table there had been at least two truly absurd hands, at least by our standards. Let’s see them now.
The top two folded with all the odds in the world
The first of the lot came at the start of the final table. On blinds 200k/400k with bb ante, chipleader Valerio Marino opens x2 AQ from button with 25M stack.
From the big blind Francesco De Rosa with 8.2M stack defends QJ
.
Flop J
TO2 De Rosa check, Marino 500k, call.
Turn QDe Rosa leads 1.3M, calls Marino.
River 5
De Rosa aims again, this time 1.8M, and remains 4.2M behind. Marino raises to 3.6M.
De Rosa shova: at this point Marino should add 2.4M to a pot that is already 15 million… But HE DECIDES TO FOLD!
Because we can’t find any sense in this game
On the river Marino has all the pot odds in the world to call with the highest two pair that can materialize that board.
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Doing the calculation with the usual formula, having to add 2.4 million to a pot of 15 million, the break-even point of the call is 13%.
In practice Marino is overcommitted to the pot. Probably the player, also favored by De Rosa’s overplay, went into overthinking and ended up convincing himself that faced with the opponent’s ultrastrong action he would have put up dead, always or almost always.
But for the writer it remains a double red circle play.
Flat for a third of the stack and then fold
The other Twilight Zone hand comes with the 4 left tournament on blinds 400k-800k with bb ante.
Left with 6.7M Giancarlo openpusha K7 from utg/co. After the fold of the Frenchman Hervè from the button with A9speaking is De Rosa from the small blind.
Player pins top range, Q
Q and calls the push to stay with 11M stack in front. Chipleader Alessio Albore also wakes up from the big blind with top range, AKbut unlike De Rosa repusha.
The latter goes into the tank and finally DECIDES TO FOLD! On board 942T2 Giancarlo is player out and the tournament reaches phase three left. But if he had called as the basics of poker would have advised him to do, De Rosa would have found an almost full triple-up!
We don’t even need to go into too much detail about the reasons why this fold seems truly senseless. Already in the commentary on the live broadcast, Giada Fang underlined the macroscopic scope of the error.
Investing a third of the stack and then folding a top of the range combo as a pair of queens in a 4 left is simply not done. Also because the chipleader could have made a great repushare with dominated pairs (99/TT/JJ).
But even if he had won the coup, De Rosa would still have come out in third place after Giancarlo.
