Gavin Smith Blasts Matt Glantz For Horrendous Poker Call
October 9, 2013 3:32 pmPoker pro Gavin Smith may be a good pal of Matthew Glantz away from the poker tables but when it comes to judging his friends play on the felt the Canadian WSOP and WPT winner doesn’t think twice about pulling his punches.
Case in point, this week Gavin Smith wrote an article for All In Mag in which he rips into Matt Glantz for making a “horrendous call” with 5-2 to his pre-flop raise, while playing at a televised ‘Poker Night in America’ cash game at Turning Stone in NY. As Gavin Smith explains in his post:
“Mathematically speaking, I believe it’s a horrendous call. I have nothing but respect for Matt, but I honestly think this call was awful beyond belief. And I don’t believe it’s a call he would have ever made had it not been on television.”
As for the hand in question, the $25/$50 cash game had players with buy-ins ranging from $5,000 up to $20,000, with Gavin Smith sitting in with a minimum stack in front of him. Mike Dentale then put in a live straddle for $100, with a “very loose and aggressive” Greg Mueller subsequently bumping it up to $300.
“Matt Glantz [5-2] just called from the button, which told me that Matt had a hand. On limited occasions he would have a very strong hand there, because Shaun Deeb was in the big blind and is known to be a bit of a squeezer. But far more frequently in that situation, Matt would have a hand that he’s looking to gamble with.”
Gavin Smith [K-Q] then decided to raise it up to $1,375, with everyone folding to Glantz who made the call, before subsequently pushing over the top of Smith’s $1,800 bet on an 8-9-5 with two hearts flop. As Smith continues:
“A good friend of mine, Nick Brancato, summed it up like this: “I would love to have someone show me the math that would ever make this pre-flop call a positive equity play.” You’re only going to hit the flop good about 20 percent of the time—and by “hit the flop,” I mean flop a flush draw, two pair, or better. Those are the hands you’re really looking to win a big hand with, and my stack was too small to make that math right. Matt was also in a spot where if he flops one pair, he’s pretty much committed to go with the hand. My range was pretty small, and K-Q is right at the bottom of it. He put himself in a situation where he called $1,075 to win another $4,000. More often than not, if he’s behind, he’s going to have to pay me off. And if he’s ahead, like in this hand, he’s not going to get paid off.”
As to why his fellow poker pro would make such an unpalatable move, well Gavin Smith puts it all down to the impact television has on players at the table who are “looking for ways to be memorable.” Heaping further admonishment on his friend, Gavin Smith then offers up some helpful advice on how he should really have played the hand:
“What’s also important to remember is that while I have this reputation of being a rammer-jammer crazy player, and sometimes I am that guy, sometimes I’m not. Watch how people are playing. I see a lot of good poker players turn into losing players because they make decisions based on opponents’ reputations, rather than how they’re playing that day. People should have looked at me that day and realized I was playing ultra tight, which makes Matt’s call infinitely worse.”
In the meantime, Matt Glantz didn’t seem too keen to be drawn into Gavin Smith’s emotive rant, and simply wrote on his twitter account:
“Strategy article by my friend @olegsmith explaining how badly I played a hand of NL against him on @PokerNightTV http://t.co/p8a7J26npB #jbl”