During a $10,000 buy-in PokerGO Cup tournament in Las Vegas, Ren Lin and Patrick Leonard clash in a massive pot close to the money bubble. Leonard rivers a full house while Lin has complete air, but this table talk makes him lose his mind!
When you defend your big blind against a raise from early or late position and the flop contains broadway cards or an ace, you should generally start by checking your entire range. These boards favor your opponent’s range because they are more likely to have stronger hands, including the nuts. By deciding not to bet, you also protect your checking range, since it will now include strong hands as well as medium strength and weak hands, keeping your poker strategy balanced and difficult to exploit.
Patrick Leonard ‘pads1161’, or Pads as he is also known, is a professional poker player from the United Kingdom. Leonard has won over $4,400,000 in live poker tournaments putting him in the top 1,000 on poker’s all time money list. He has 1 World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet, which came in the 2022 $1,000 Tag Team Event where he paired up with WSOP Main Event Champion Espen Jørstad.
Ren Lin ‘Lady Gaga’, or Tony Lin as he is known in the poker world, is a professional poker player from China, who resides in New York, United States. Lin has won over $16,000,000 in live poker tournaments putting him in the top 100 on poker’s all time money list. Lin’s biggest cash of $1,045,781 came in 2023 at the World Poker Tour (WPT) World Championship, where he finished 3rd.
The PokerGo Cup was a series of eight No-Limit Hold’em poker tournaments with buy-ins ranging from $5,000 – $25,000 played from February 11 – 21, 2025 and held inside the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.
$10,000 – 2025 PokerGO Cup Event #4 – Results
1st: Eric Blair – United States – $254,800
2nd: Joey Weissman – United States – $161,700
3rd: Justin Saliba ‘Jsaliba2’ – United States – $117,600
4th: Darren Elias ‘arrakeen’ – United States – $88,200
5th: Aram Zobian ‘araggr’ – United States – $68,600
6th: Justin Sternberg – United States – $49,000
🔍 Preflop:
Approaching the bubble in a $10,000 PokerGO tournament, Ren Lin raises from the cutoff with A3o to 30,000. After the button and small blind fold, Patrick Leonard defends his big blind holding K8o.
💸 Flop – Kd 9c 8s:
Leonard flops best with top and bottom pair, which he decides to check. Lin, with just ace-high, chooses to carve out a continuation bet of 35,000. Leonard lays the trap by just smooth calling with his two pair and the two professional poker players head to the turn.
💣 Turn – Ks:
The king of spades on the turn now improves Leonard to a full house, which is currently the second nuts as he only loses to king-nine for a higher boat. He checks again and Lin decides to represent trips as he fires a second barrel of 60,000. Leonard opts not to check raise with his boat and just calls to allow Lin the opportunity to bluff on the river.
🌊 River – 2d:
A blank deuce of diamonds on the river changes nothing, and Leonard leads out with his full house for an extremely small bet of 55,000. Will Lin just fold to the bet, or will Leonard be able to get him to do something crazy with some table talk? Stay tuned to the end of 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!
