WPH #508: When GTO Poker Meets EXPLOIT! [Charlie Carrel vs Andy Stacks]

The Poker Coaching Podcast with Jonathan Little

“”F#&K GTO” protagonist Charlie Carrel battled against cash game crusher Andy Stacks in the very first hand of a Sit & Go for GGPoker’s Game of Gold. Andy found himself in a tricky spot with pocket queens after a disastrous runout and an unorthodox line by Charlie.

In 3-bet pots, it’s usually best not to lead into the preflop aggressor, as their range will generally be stronger with hands like overpairs. However, if you anticipate your opponent will fold too much to a lead or not raise then you can do this with your more marginal holdings

Andy Tsai or “Andy Stacks” as he is more commonly known in the poker world is a popular professional poker player originally from Taiwan who currently resides in Los Angeles, United States. Over the last decade, Andy Stacks has established himself as one of the most recognizable poker faces on live poker streams playing regularly on ‘Hustler Casino Live’ and ‘Live At The Bike’. Andy is known for being an ambassador for GGPoker. He has a very calm and quiet demeanour at the poker table and was given his nickname “Andy Stacks” as he always has huge stacks of chips when playing in live cash games.

Charlie Carrel “Epiphany77” is a professional poker player from England and has over $9,600,000 in live tournament earnings with his biggest cash of £1,600,000 coming at a Triton Poker Super High Roller Series London in a £50,000 tournament. Charlie is a strong believer in live reads at the poker table and regularly explains his decision-making based on them. He is widely known to be against the Game Theory Optimal (GTO poker) approach to poker, often saying ‘F#&K GTO’ in his YouTube videos. Instead, he focuses on exploitable strategies. Charlie’s big break came in 2014 when he took down the PokerStars Sunday Million for over $200,000. He is good friends with high-stakes tournament poker player Ben Heath.

Filmed in Seoul, South Korea and hosted by experienced poker broadcaster Ali Nejad, Game of Gold combines high stakes poker with survival reality TV. Over the course of the 12 episodes, the sixteen participants competed across various poker formats, including Sit & Go’s, Heads-Up games, Indian Poker and a standard tournament poker game.

The poker players on the show included Daniel Negreanu “KidPoker”, Jason Koon, Fedor Holz “CrownUpGuy”, Kevin Martin, Kyna England, Josh Arieh, Daniel Cates “Jungleman”, Lukas Robinson “RobinPoker”, Nikita Luther, Charlie Carrel “Epiphany77”, Johan Guilbert “YoH ViraL”, Olga Iermolcheva, David Williams, Andy Tsai “Andy Stacks”, Michael Soyza, and Maria Ho.

In Round 1, a four-tier Sit & Go poker format, each team (spades, diamonds, hearts, and clubs) put a poker player into a separate round of four-handed poker action, with Game of Gold coins on offer for finishing first, second, third, or fourth. The rounds increased in the amount of coins that were offered, until the fourth ‘mystery’ round, where no-one knew how many coins were on offer. The team with the least Game of Gold coins at the end of all four Sit & Go’s would be eliminated.

Preflop: In the opening hand of this Sit & Go, Charlie Carrel opens to 40,000 from the cutoff with pocket fives. Andy Stacks looks down at two red queens on the button and 3-bets to 110,000. After the blinds fold, Carrel calls with his small pocket pair.

Flop – 7h 4h 6s: The seven-high flop with two hearts is great for Carrel, who flops an open-ended straight draw with his fives. He donk leads for 30,000 into the preflop aggressor Andy, whose pocket queens still remain an overpair on the low connected board. Andy also has a queen-high backdoor flush draw to go with his premium pair, prompting him to make the call.

Turn – 8h: The 8 of hearts on the turn completes the flush, but it also gives Carrel the straight. He would upgrade to a straight flush if the 6 of hearts were to fall on the river. Carrel decides to bet 130,000, slightly under half-pot. Andy can’t be pleased with the appearance of this turn card, as many hands in Carrel’s range have now improved to beat him. Nonetheless, he calls again.

River – 5s: The 5 of spades on the river spells disaster for Carrel, as he’s now chopping the pot. However, Carrel attempts to scoop the entire pot and bets nearly the pot, firing out 550,000. Andy now has to decide whether to fold, call, or raise? Curious about what the high stakes cash game crusher will do? Watch this poker video to find out!

Jonathan Little analyzes live poker hands from TV poker shows such as Poker After Dark, Hustler Casino Live, The Lodge Poker Club & PokerGO. He also analyzes popular poker vloggers such as Rampage Poker, Brad Owen, Jaman Burton, Ashley Sleeth, Wolfgang Poker and others!

You will also find many poker hands on this channel that contain some of the biggest names in the poker world such as; Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, Doug Polk, Garrett Adelstein, Tom ‘Durrrr’ Dwan, Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates, Fedor Holz & many more!

#pokerstrategy #gameofgold #ggpoker

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