Like last year, I've thought of my top 3 hands of the year and going to share them with you now.
Hand 1: IPT San Remo hero callA weak player opened utg at 100/200 to 400 and I was utg+1 with
and 3bet to 1100. He had massive sizing tells, he’d at least 3x it with good hands, and limp or minraise small pairs/suited connectors. So I 3b for value/isolation and the sb Italian dude cold called the sb. My read was that he had some sort of pretty hand he wanted to see a flop with. He was pretty bad and I had a strong bluffing tell on him.The utg raiser folded and pretty hand man and I went to the flop.
. The pot was 2800 and he donked for 1600. This is a draw almost everytime, and with over(s) and backdoor straight and flush draws, I'm never folding to this bet. I called and the turn came the
and he checked. I bet 4000 and he thought for a long time and called, he looked like he was going to fold at one point but he threw in the chips in a “can’t help myself” sort of way. The “Ian Gascoigne” we call it;)
The river was the
. The pot was 14k and he then did the tell! He picked up a 5k chip and then added to it with a 1k, a 500, some 100s and finally some 25s. When he’s betting for value bets quickly and more rounded denominations, when bluffing he wants to “beef” up the bet with his change.
Now I’m in a pickle though. I have 21k back and he’s bet 6875, he has me well covered. I’m so sure he’s bluffing but I only have K high! He could be bluffing with Ace high! If I’m wrong with my read and shove and get called - I’m out. If I call and he shows Axdd I feel like a twat.
I really thought he had JTdd, 9Tdd J8dd, T8dd and maybe Ax dd but felt like he didn’t even have Ace high showdown value. I wasn’t sure on that last bit, and I think shoving would probably be better given my reads, but if I was wrong I wanted to still have a chance and not be out. In the end I decided to take Lex Veldhuis' advice: "I’d rather look like a fool and learn from it than wimp out and not go with my read"
So, I called, and to my delight he turned over
. I think that was the most satisfying pot I’ve ever won.
Hand 2: EPT Prague bluff.800/1600 average stack is 90k I have about 140, villain about the same. The button opens to 3.2k and villain 3bets the sb to 8.5k. I have 99 in the big blind and decide that although peeling turns my hand reasonably faceup as 88-JJ, AQ/AJs, it's better than any other option. So I call and the btn folds.
and villain checks. Basically as soon as this flop came down I had big plans for this hand! Just because of how narrow my range is pre and how this board hits it. I'm gonna rep quad jacks here!
I have no solid info on him other than he's young, but I kind of get the impression from looking at him that this is a big shot for him, perhaps a satelliter. I decided to bet, 8k, he called reasonably quickly. This doesn't tell me too much about his hand, I think he might check/call QQ-AA sometimes, but never Jx or TT though. I decided he either had AK/AQ/KQ or he had Tx most likely, and sometimes QQ-AA. Tx is the only hand he'd almost definitely check call rather than anything else. He can have loads of combos of Tx too. T6s all the way to AT probably.Tx seemed the most likely from the way he called. Also, it felt like he had a made hand.
The turn was the
and he checked again, I bet 17k and he called. Removing AK and AQ combos from his range almost completely now, still Tx mainly and not ruling out QQ-AA or KQ.
River is the
. Pot is 70k villain has 100k back I have about 110. I decided that the only hand he can call a jam with is KK, which we've only kept in his range as an outside possibility. How can he call with AA even? I can have every possible nutted hand, TT, AJ, JJ, AQ, KK even. And what bluffs? 99 surely the only one? Would he expect me to bluff off all these chips? I'd been playing aggressive but always hand the goods in big pots. Would he wanna hero call off an above average stack in an EPT?
So I shoved. I'd feel pretty annoyed busting this big of a tournament by bluffing off, but felt so comfortable with this, because I knew it was going to work basically 100%.
It was by far the biggest bluff of my life, huge adrenaline pumping through my body, it felt amazing. I didn't get too much time to sweat it though, after about 5 seconds he folded and I could breathe again.
So strange, nasty in a way, having such a huge moment that I couldn't share with anyone. Wanted to be in my living room with the boys saying "BOOM!". I just had to muck my hand and stack up the chips quietly. Then post immediately on Facebook
Hand 3: WPT Prague sweat!In the biggest tournament of my life so far, I had built a nice stack on day one, then had a really tough table on day two with Timex and Toby Lewis but grinded really hard all day, picking my spots and playing really great. Towards the end of the day I took some hits and morale was dropping as we got nearer the money and all my hard work was in danger of being for nothing.
The hand itself was totally standard - Timex and I get in 140k at 1.5k/3k with my
vs his
. This was such a huge moment for all sorts of reasons. Not just this tournament, where it was for virtually all my stack, but for the whole trip it was massive and I might've flown home early if I busted and then I would've spent Christmas feeling really shitty about poker still like I have done for the last 2 months.
The flop gave me what I wanted
, and I looked to see if he had a club, he did not, nor did I. The turn was a
and I was just saying to myself No Ten, No Club, NO TEN, NO CLUB!
was the river, and my heart sank. I thought to myself "Oh my god that is so sick" and then I realised that it was a chop, and then I was flooded with relief! Then kind of annoyed that I hadn't knocked him out lol. Was a rollercoaster of emotions in those few seconds, sick adrenaline rush!
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