Santhosh’s Image Reaps the Rewards? Throwback to 2023

I must admit not many players entertain me as much as Santhosh Survana, you never know what you are going to get. One thing that is certain, he can play! There are two sides to Santhosh which one will we see? Bally Live Poker has recently uploaded a huge hand to their YouTube channel, that featured Santhosh and Eric Persson, let’s dive in and see how it unfolded.

The hand originally took place on the 29th of June 2023 with blinds set at $100/200 +$200BBA & $400/$800.

Poker at the Lodge co-founder Doug Polk ($717,300) opened the action with a raise of $2,000 from the highjack with AJ. After several folds, Eric in the small-blind had no intention of playing Ace-Rag A2 passively out of position, and raised it to $8,000. Santhosh being the action adrenaline Junkie he is, called with 86 eight-six offsuit from the big blind! Polk made the call, and three-handed they went to the flop with $25,200 in the middle.

Two Can Play That Game

The flop came out all spades 685 giving Santhosh top two, whereas Eric had picked up decent equity, he was drawing to the nut flush. After being the aggressor pre-flop Eric led out with a bet of $10,000. On such a wet board, Santhosh took the conservative approach and flatted. Heads up to the turn with $45,200 in play.

Eric picked up further equity after the A landed on the turn. Undeterred by hitting top-pair, Persson continued the aggression, this time with a bet of $15,000. Believing his two-pair to be good, Santhosh had seen enough. Now was the time to protect his hand, $65,000 was the raise. Eric made the quick call and just like that the pot stood at an incredible $175,200 going to the river.

What now For Eric? he’s out of position and Santhosh had the initiative on the turn, surely after the 3 brick on the river he has to give up. He checked quickly, which was met by an even quicker “All in” by Survana. On Such a wet-board, how likely was it Santhosh was bluffing? This is what Eric had to ask himself. That is all he could beat, a bluff. He had to call $115k to win the $317,300, which means to make it a profitable call his opponent would have to be bluffing here at a frequency greater than 1/3 times.

I can only attribute his decision to his opponent’s playstyle, calling in a spot where the odds seemed stacked against him. What’s certain, though, is this unpredictability is exactly what makes Santhosh so dangerous. You can never be sure what hand he might be holding.