It may be obvious, but poker players like winning. Arlie Shaban is a poker player, so logic dictates Arlie likes to win!

In today’s clip, Arlie is playing Power up, and has got the table down to just one other player. Arlie has a big chip lead going into the hand. Arlie’s opponent raises to 3 big blinds, leaving less than 2 full big blinds in his stack. Arlie plays a Scanner card and sees that he’s going to have at least pair on the flop. He calls, and the flop gives him a straight draw to go with his pair.

As Arlie points out in the video he makes a bet for all but 1 of his opponent’s chips. This is so he is the last one to put chips into the pot. In Power Up, being the last person to act in a pot has a massive advantage. This allows you to play the last power card, which can be the difference between winning and losing an all-in pot. In this case, Arlie’s opponent plays a double Engineer card combo, obviously hunting for something to improve their hand.

Arlie calls for his opponent to put the six of hearts on the top of the deck, but instead his opponent selects a three, and then plays a Clone/Engineer power combo to have another bite at the cherry. Arlie thinks the other player has found his card when the Jack of Clubs is taken so quickly. He also calls Arlie’s bet rather than raising his last chip, in order to protect the Jack that’s coming on the turn.

After some thought, Arlie plays his own Clone/Engineer combo, and finds the four of spades which will give him his straight on the river. It will put a flush on the board, but as he is convinced that the Jack helped the other player, Arlie’s really not worried about the flush. The action goes bet followed by the other player making the 1 chip call.

The other player turns over Ten-Seven for a straight draw and a pair of sevens. If Arlie hadn’t found the four for the river, his pair of sixes wouldn’t have been enough.

This hand highlights some interesting Power Up strategy. Arlie’s non-shove out of position essentially gave him the button giving him the last chance to use a power. The other player was pot committed after their initial raise, so the rest of the chips were always going into the middle. Arlie read the situation well, not allowing the other player to control the action. It was obvious the Jack helped him, even if it only gave him a draw. Arlie had to use some powers to win the hand, and by doing so, win the tournament. Arlie had to think about how he was going to influence the river card and ended up cloning his opponent’s engineer card allowing him to do so. It really shows that the depth of strategy in Power Up is only just surface deep right now. We have a long time before the game is truly “solved!”

Winning at Power Up is going to be done by those who are willing to develop new strategies. It’s also going to be won by those who follow PlayPowerUp.com’s upcoming strategy discussions!

What do you think? Would you have played this differently? Comment below or join our discord channel to discuss this, and Power Up in general.