The Professor Challenge – Day 16: Aces Cracked Twice, Still in the Green
Updated: Oct 16
💰 Bankroll Progress
Starting Bankroll: 1,432.90 DC
Ending Bankroll: 1,525.18 DC
Session Result: +92.28 DC
Challenge Status: Two brutal late-session AA losses, but another profitable finish.
📖 Table of Contents
🎢 A Standard Session Until the End
Today started as a fairly standard Red Dragon Poker session. Nothing unusual was happening and, for most of the grind, there was not much to report. The real action came late, when two enormous pots with pocket aces completely changed the feel of the session.
The interesting part is that neither of those pots stopped the bankroll from moving forward. After all the variance, Day 16 still closed in profit, taking the challenge from 1,432.90 DC to 1,525.18 DC.
If you missed the previous sessions, read Day 15, Day 14, and our Red Dragon Poker overview for more context on the field, the unusual stack depths and the adjustments behind this challenge.
🃏 AA vs 99: The River 9
The first painful pot came with AA against 99. The pot reached roughly 160x, and the money went in with me in the position I wanted. Then a 9 arrived on the river.
There is not much strategy to invent after the fact. Sometimes the favorite loses. The important thing is not to let a bad river influence the next decision — especially in a game where the pots can become very large very quickly.
💥 The 350x Three-Way Pot
The second hand was much more interesting. I was in the straddle with AA, including the Ace of diamonds. The small blind raised, the big blind called, and I made a large 3-bet. Both players called.
The flop came T-7-6 with two diamonds. The small blind immediately moved all-in and the big blind called. Now the decision was on me with an overpair, the nut-diamond blocker and a pot that would grow to roughly 350x.
I took a few seconds before calling. The main reason was player profile: both opponents were running VPIPs above 50% and had repeatedly shown down very weak hands, including flop all-ins with top pair and poor kickers. Against players that loose, folding a hand as strong as AA automatically felt too conservative.
The small blind turned over 98 for a flopped straight. That was the second huge AA pot lost near the end of the session.
🧠 Was the Call With AA Correct?
This is the hand I most want Marchese del River to examine. The opponent profiles strongly widen the range of hands that can take aggressive lines, but multiway action changes everything. A shove followed by a call on T-7-6 is a much stronger signal than facing a single loose opponent.
The Ace of diamonds is also a double-edged detail. It gives me useful equity on many diamond runouts, but it also blocks some of the natural nut-flush-draw combinations that loose opponents could otherwise be overplaying. Without the exact pot odds and remaining stacks, I do not think the spot should be reduced to a simple “always call” or “always fold.”
📺 Watch the Full Session
The complete Day 16 session is available on The Poker Broker YouTube channel below.
🎓 Technical Comment by Marchese del River
The AA versus 99 hand is simply variance. The three-way 350x pot deserves more attention because the strength of an overpair changes dramatically when one player shoves and another player calls on a connected flop.
The loose profiles absolutely matter. Players with VPIPs above 50% who have already shown a willingness to stack off light can arrive here with top pair, two pair, sets, pair-plus-draw hands and many diamond draws. That pushes the decision toward continuing more often than it would against disciplined regulars.
At the same time, the combination of multiway aggression and the A♦ should make us cautious. The Ace of diamonds blocks some of the strongest flush-draw semi-bluffs, while 98, 89, sets and two-pair combinations are all plausible on this board. Exact pot odds and effective stacks would decide how attractive the call really is.
The key lesson is not that the call was obviously right or obviously wrong. It is that player tendencies can justify much wider stack-off ranges, but they should never make us ignore how much stronger simultaneous multiway action is.
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💭 Final Thoughts
Day 16 looked ordinary until the final stretch. Then AA lost a 160x pot to 99 on the river and ran into a flopped straight in a massive three-way 350x confrontation. Those two hands could easily make the session feel like a disaster.
The bankroll tells a different story. I still finished +92.28 DC and reached 1,525.18 DC. That is exactly why the challenge is about the process rather than the emotional weight of one or two giant pots.
The Bankroll Challenge continues.
