Hand 2 Hand Combat -- Kevin MacPhee

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Craig Tapscott: Explain the difference between a six-max event and full-ring tournaments.



Kevin "WU_WIZARD" MacPhee: First of all, in a six-max tournament, it's very important to stay active. The blinds come around faster and you are playing against fewer opponents. For these reasons, it is important to widen your raising and three-betting range.



CT: What's your table image at this point with 41 players remaining?



KM: I had been very active at the table, opening most pots and reraising frequently. Two hands before this one, I had applied a leverage concept and three-bet RYANWELCH16's under-the-gun raise with A-8 offsuit. I know Ryan is a very good online tournament regular, but at this point, I feel that he's a little frustrated.



RYANWELCH16 completes the small blind for 2,000. WU_WIZARD raises to 6,250 with the Q J from the big blind. RYANWELCH16 calls.



CT: I'm assuming that with position and a strong hand in the big blind, you're raising for value here.



KM: The Q J has a lot of value when this deep-stacked, especially considering that I'll be playing the rest of the hand in position. And when he limps in from the small blind, I see it as an open invitation to take down the pot. When he limp-calls, I think his range is relatively wide. My suspicion is that he is trying to control the pot size with a medium holding, like a small pair, suited connector, or two big cards. Because of my high three-betting frequency, I believe that he would have raised with a strong holding, hoping to get all the chips in preflop.



Flop: J 8 2 (13,700 pot)



RYANWELCH16 checks. WU_WIZARD bets 6,750.



KM: I have flopped an extremely strong hand in a blind-versus-blind situation. I'm clearly betting my hand for value and hoping he check-raises me.



CT: Why that bet-sizing for this continuation-bet?



KM: The bet of less than half the size of the pot is in attempt to look weak. This has a couple of benefits. First, it allows him to check-raise me with a wider range of hands. Second, if my bet gets a fold, it will enable me to bluff in the future for a cheaper price.



RYANWELCH16 calls.



KM: OK, at this point, A-A, K-K, and Q-Q hands trying to trap me have been eliminated from his range. If he had any of these hands, he would have check-raised the flop, hoping that I would shove him with a jack or a draw. Extremely strong drawing hands would also check-raise this flop. He also should happily check-raise with hands like the Q 10, 10 7, 9 7, or 8 X in an attempt to take down the pot on the flop. Hands like these aren't a huge underdog to anything, and should be played in a way that maximizes fold equity. Supposing he held one of those hands, he would have at least 12 outs, meaning he would be 48 percent even versus an overpair. When he simply calls, we can also eliminate those hands from his range.



CT: What is his range, then?



KM: Well, K-J and 2-2 are possible, but it's more likely that he is check-calling with a jack or an 8. Weaker drawing hands like 10-9, a small flush draw, or straight draw with an overcard are still in his range.



Turn: 3 (27,200 pot)



RYANWELCH16 checks.



CT: What's the plan? Control the pot, or bet?



KM: I have two options: bet my hand for value and to protect it from draws, or check, attempting to control my stack and the pot and possibly extract a river bluff from a missed draw.



Betting protects my hand against the weaker draws. It also enables me to extract maximum value from a jack or an 8 by getting bets in on all three streets. By betting, I have premeditated that I will call if he shoves. Bet-folding would destroy all the value that top pair has in this situation, and in essence turn Q-J into 7-2. If I bet, I'm calling his shove.



If I check, I protect my stack, induce river bluffs from missed draws, and can still bet for value if he checks the river. I was chipping up very easily all tournament, and my three-bets were working 70 percent to 80 percent of the time. My open-raises were working very well, too. So, keeping all pots relatively small was really important for me to continue chipping up.



WU_WIZARD bets 12,750.



CT: What happened to pot control?



KM: I decide to try to extract maximum value, and bet. My bet is less than half the size of the pot. Again, the bet size here is small, but this time, it is an attempt to lure him along with a weaker jack or an 8.



RYANWELCH16 check-raises to 65,450.



CT: Oops! What now?



KM: I'm extremely surprised by the check-raise. I was expecting him to continue his pot-control strategy if he had a jack or an 8, but as stated earlier, I'm never bet-folding the turn in this spot to a check-raise.



WU_WIZARD moves all in. RYANWELCH16 calls all in for his remaining 12,933, and flips over the 3 2 for two pair.



River: A



RYANWELCH16 wins the 183,966 pot.



KM: I was very surprised to see him flip over that hand. My read was clearly correct that he was getting frustrated. It's just unfortunate for me that the safest-looking turn card turned into a disaster.



CT: What lesson did you take away from this hand?



KM: The central theme of this hand analysis from my perspective is weighing the theories of "small-ball poker" versus "max-value poker." This underlying concept parallels a lot of the differences I've seen between the way tournament specialists and cash-game specialists approach multitable tournaments. Tournament specialists assign a lot of value to their tournament life, and rightly so. They play pot control because they know how easy it is to build a stack back up. Because of this, the multitable tournament specialist will oftentimes miss max value when playing a hand, while consistently protecting his life.



A cash player who's playing a multitable tournament sometimes ignores tournament life as an outside-the-box variable. I think it's a mistake to do so. Cash players will focus solely on playing a hand for max value at all times. They ignore small-ball poker and will recklessly play big pots with more marginal holdings, as I did here with Q-J.



If my triple barrel had been successful, I would have bet about 12,000 on the turn and about 24,000 on the river. Assuming that he pays off those bets, I'll be gaining only 24,000 more by taking that line over the check and bet option, but I'm risking my whole stack.



To really analyze the optimal line in this situation, there almost needs to be a value assigned to my tournament life. If I check the turn and he bets the river, it will be between 15,000 and 20,000. I can call and bet, and even if I lose, I will still have 50,000-60,000 – effectively 25-30 big blinds.



CT: And you're still alive and strong.



KM: Yes. I believe that an intact stack of 25-30 big blinds has more value than the value gained from a potential triple barrel. For that reason, I have come to the conclusion that checking the turn with Q-J is the optimal long-term play for endgame multitable tournament poker.







Kevin MacPhee is a successful 28-year-old professional poker player from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. He has $1,000,000 in cashes online. Like many online players, he is making the transition into the live arena, and is now a regular on the European Poker Tour. He played 14 events at last year's World Series of Poker, and finished eighth in event No. 9, $1,500 no-limit hold'em six-max. He has cashed in tournaments around the world, including the EPT Barcelona, EPT Warsaw, and APPT Macau.