Hand 2 Hand Combat -- Sean Nolan

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The under-the-gun, under-the-gun-plus-one, middle-position, and hijack-position players all limp in for $10. Nolan raises to $75 from the button with the 10 2. Everyone folds except the Villain in the hijack position, who calls.


Craig Tapscott: Do you have any history with the Villain?



Sean Nolan: Villain is a woman in her mid-20s. She's been talking about playing in the World Series main event and mentions that her "brothers" are pro tournament players. I saw her playing $5-$10 games around this same time a year ago. She seems like the standard tight casino regular, although I've seen her take a fairly aggressive line in a couple of limped pots. It's pretty clear that she's almost definitely a winning player, and possibly a full-time pro. She's seen me play two massive pots, both involving set over set. I was behind once and ahead once. I've managed to pick up a handful of multiway pots on the flop, as well.



Flop: K J J (pot: $195)



SN: This is probably one of the best flops for me. I have the flush draw, so I have backup if she does call my flop bet, plus position. I'm likely to be able to take a free card if the turn isn't great for the situation.



CT: What do you make her limp-call range to be?



SN: I decide that her limping range probably consists of suited connectors, lower pocket pairs (9-9 and lower; more likely, 6-6 and lower), random Broadway and weaker Broadway, and perhaps a few suited gappers. This range doesn't mesh super well with the flop, as there are many more suited and connected low cards that she could be playing than high cards, with all the limpers, so I figure a smaller c-bet [continuation-bet] would be best, as it would save me some money if she made a big move, and push her off any random cards that totally missed.



Nolan bets $120. Villain calls.



Turn: A (pot: $435)



CT: You can't be too happy with that call.



SN: I'm not ecstatic that she flatted [flat-called] the flop. However, I did think it was possible she would float me out of position. My bet was small enough that she may have decided to stick around with a hand like 9-9 to see how I would react on the turn. It's also possible that she has K-10 or K-Q and decided to see a turn card. If that is the case, this is a great turn card to run a multi-street bluff with outs. Lastly, if she does have a hand such as Q-J or J-10, and perhaps J-9 suited, it's not likely that she's going to raise my turn bet, given our stack sizes, as it's unlikely that she would be able to get it in with the best hand this way, especially considering that I give her credit for being a fairly good, thinking player. At this point, I also realize that it may be possible to bluff her off one of these weak jacks, if necessary, with a large river bet, or extract appropriate value in the event that I see a river heart.



CT: So, what do you do?



SN: I decide that the A is a great card, and follow up with another bet.



Nolan bets $320. Villain calls quickly.



River: 8 (pot: $1,075)



SN: I hit a flush on the river. At this point, she doesn't look particularly comfortable with the situation.



Nolan bets $380.



SN: I'm figuring that this will be the most value I can get out of J-X hands, and possibly get hero-called by some kind of K-X or perhaps even a random ace that she floated with on the flop.



Villain raises to $1,500.



CT: What do you think of her line in this hand? Could she have a monster?



SN: Her line is bizarre. I toss out K-J or A-J as possibilities. She is aggressive enough that I feel with our stacks being so deep, she'd attempt a raise on either the flop or turn in an effort to get more of my stack in the pot. Q-J, J-10, and J-9 are all possible, so I've hit the best hand. I don't think she'd play many J-8 hands in general preflop, and even if so, definitely not a J-8 offsuit, so if she hit a boat, it would have to be exactly with J-8 suited, which isn't very likely. A-A, K-K, and J-J are unlikely, for obvious reasons.



CT: So what hand would she raise with here?



SN: Well, the only hand that really conceivably has me in trouble here is a higher flush, something like an A-X of hearts hand.



CT: So the nut flush?



SN: It's very unlikely that she would value-raise anything here but the nut flush. If she has the nut flush, it's still not a guarantee that she would make a value-raise, as the board is paired, she has far from the nuts, and I've shown aggression on all streets. I feel this player knows that if she did value-raise the nut flush and I came over the top, she'd have to fold. I felt confident that she wouldn't put herself in that position.



CT: What's your conclusion, then?



SN: Given all these circumstances, I felt the only hand she could be doing this with for value was J-8 suited, which hit a boat. Even then, it's not much stronger than a nut flush, as K-K, A-A, A-J, and perhaps even K-J should all conceivably be in my range. After about a minute of running all of this through my head, I decided to go ahead and make the call.



Nolan calls $1,500. Villain mucks. Nolan wins the pot of $4,075.



SN: She instantly mucked and stormed off a bit upset at what I showed down, but I was pleased that I spent the time to use proper hand-reading skills, and came out winning a pot much larger than perhaps I should have.



CT: What do you think she held?



SN: If I had to guess, I'd presume that she had a medium-strength hand that she turned into a bluff, such as K-Q.



CT: I read in an interview that when you began, you used the online poker forums to study one main aspect of the game. It certainly helped here. Would you share that?



SN: Well, when I first came across online poker forums, I noticed quickly that people were very open about discussing their opinions on how to play certain hands in certain situations. Most people utilized this to make tweaks to their own play. However, I noticed almost right away that there's a lot more under the face value of these posts. I realized that a lot of these people were giving their honest first-instinct assessments of hand situations. I thought this was an amazing opportunity, because it allowed me to get unfiltered reads on how my more knowledgeable opponents think about the game. I was able to exploit this pretty well and apply logic in my own play, which attempted to manipulate the ways my opponents think and take them to the "next level," so to speak.











Sean Nolan has the well-earned reputation of being one of the best online medium-stakes no-limit players in the game. He is a recent University of New Hampshire graduate who has been playing medium- and high-stakes poker both live and online for the last three years. Since graduating, he has been focusing his efforts on the live-tournament circuit, as well.