In normal circumstances, having just completed a week of festival poker on my home stomping ground I would expect to give you a comprehensive account of the highs and lows of the week leading up to a glorious finale with a cash in the Main Event or, knowing me, a gallant bubble! However, my play last week alternated between the terrible and the ludicrous so I am going to spare myself, let alone you, the gory details for the time being. Suffice to say I am taking a short break. I think when you get to the stage where the left side of your brain is telling you to fold and is putting your opponent on a hand but the right side of your brain makes the call anyway and Mateyboy turns over exactly the hand you had put him on then it’s time to take stock! So, instead of giving you a few misplayed hands, I thought I would write about a subject that I had only possessed a little knowledge on before this week. That subject is Mr Ali Mallu.
Now being a semi regular participant on the festival circuit for the past year or so I knew Mr Mallu by reputation. Indeed his play has coined a new verb in the poker lexicon 'to be Mallu-ed'. I was particularly fascinated by one play in the last Walsall final where RED-DOG was 'Mallu-ed' by 2-4 off-suit and periodically, for no particular reason, that hand kept coming back to me.
So it was with a mixture of trepidation and delight that midway through last Monday night’s festival opener my table broke and I found myself moved two to the right of the infamous one and began to witness for the first time a style based on constant aggression and unorthodox play. I, short-stacked as per normal and grinding away looking for a spot, knew that I was not going to be the one to mix with Mr Mallu. However, also on the table was Jim Reid. Now Jim Reid with chips is a fearsome opponent, and sure enough he had chips. I gave it about a level before one had given the other a poker bloody nose. Soon the hand came.
Mallu limps under the gun and it is folded round to Reid on the button who raises. With only a nanosecond of thought Mallu reraises all in. Reid looks and calls fairly quickly, flipping over Q-Q. Reid has Mallu covered. Mallu turns over T-7 of hearts, gets no help and leaves the competition. It is fair to say the table was agog. I, however, was intrigued. What was the thought process behind a play like this? Even better, look at this one from the early stages of the Main Event as described on the live update: Eric Barker (described memorably as a 'turbocharged Mallu') raises UTG with A-K suited and tikay flat calls in mid position with 6-6. Mallu, on the button, then reraises a sizeable amount. Barker pushes all in, tikay folds. So you are Ali Mallu and your opponent is showing extreme strength. You’ve made a reraise steal with… drum roll please... 8-3 OFFSUIT!!!... and it’s all your chips to call the reraise. Easy decision. Of course it is, call! He makes a four-flush with the 3 to win a massive pot.
Again, what was the thought process behind a play like this?
These are but two examples of Mallu plays I saw or heard about during the week.
Now it would be easy to dismiss a player like this as a complete gambler who gets lucky a few times and if he does so gets massive chips and then can bully with impunity. However, I think to regard Mallu in that manner underestimates the man. I think there is a method to his 'madness' which I observed last week. Indeed I was to find myself sitting on his table three times in four competitions during the festival. Here’s what I think his method in playing these unbelievable hands is:
• He picks his player.
By this I mean he is going to go against a loose-aggressive opponent. He is calculating that when he puts his reraise all in steal in then the percentage chances of this player having one of the few hands (A-A, K-K, Q-Q, A-K) that will actually want to play for all their chips preflop is lower than if you do it against a solid/tight/rocky player. Of course, on occasions, he will find his LAG opponents with one of the monsters, but even then he has a chance to win on low flops etc.
• He picks a chip stack.
Again, when making this type of move he is doing it against an opponent who if he calls will be doing so for all/almost all of their chips. Again, this increases his percentages that his opponent won’t risk it.
• He always has 'first in vigorish'
By which I mean the majority of his chips are always in the middle first... so he has enormous 'fold equity' as everyone knows it's impossible to put him on a hand and they are risking their tournament life on putting their chips in as a caller and not the aggressor. This runs counter to perceived wisdom and everything every book, article and player says! Note though in the Barker example above he seems to be playing the player, calling all-in with 8-3 off. Backing down and showing weakness appears to take on more importance to Mr Mallu than exiting a tournament. This interests me as an observer, I wonder what lies behind it!
• He has shown monsters very recently
If you ever play with Mr Mallu, watch this. For at least the last three times before he makes these seemingly kamikaze moves he has shown hands like K-K, A-A etc. The all-in steal only comes at a time when the table is thinking, he hopes, "oh no not another monster!” Furthermore, he plays the K-K, A-A hands exactly the same way as he plays his 8-3 off. Limp/reraise or raise a raiser all-in.
All in all, he is turning the percentages as much in his favour as he can of not getting a call. Occasionally he will look stupid, more often he looks crazy but he is stacking mountains of chips.
There also must be some bankroll considerations in play. I do not know Mr Mallu at all well, and know nothing of his non poker life. I was extremely grateful that he found the time to give me a few words of advice last week. I found him to be soft spoken, considerate and friendly. I have researched his career poker winnings and if I was to go on this alone then I would say that he clearly has the bankroll to be able to carry this high variance style of tournament poker off. However these winnings are gross and do not account for entries, expenses and the like so I am not drawing any conclusions. I do suspect though that he is a wealthy man and can play with a freedom that the 'jobbing' pro cannot. Perhaps I can draw a parallel with Gus Hansen who hit cards off the roof with crazy hands for two years on the WPT circuit and gained a fame that stays with him to this day. However, once financial considerations came into play for him (he was rumoured to have been in trouble in the 'big game' last year) his style of play was crimped and the results dried up. As a penultimate thought I would like to present the following hypothesis: the UK festival circuit is becoming more and more loose-aggressive and is a couple of years behind the US circuit where results are dominated by the LAGs. Lee Nelson of 'Kill Phil' fame when winning at the Vic earlier in the summer made this point and commented that most British players played “ABC tight-aggressive” which was the old fashioned way of playing. Perhaps Mr Mallu is a forerunner of what we will see in years to come. I suspect he might be.
However, perhaps we are just witnessing an inveterate gambler. One late night last week I was winding down playing a couple of £5 blackjack boxes before heading for home. This is another sign that mentally I’m not right at the moment! Sitting playing traps 2 and 3 on a 7 box table I notice Ali Mallu move to a position at the side of the table. Every box is being played. He places £x00 in chips behind my solitary fiver and I give him a quizzical look. He says “It’s ok, its going to be be good”. Sure enough I make 20 and the dealer busts. I go to give him his £x00 squared back and he says “No, leave it on there”… so now it's my fiver on the box and his gazillions behind. He is smiling. I am confused. Sure enough out pops a blackjack and he cashes in four figures from two deals.The amazing thing is I swear to you that he had not been watching the shoe previously!