Hand 2 Hand Combat -- Darren Elias

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Hand No. 1

Craig Tapscott: Let's talk about the dynamics of an event such as FTOPS.

Darren Elias: These online series tournaments like to boast huge fields, using lots of small-stakes satellites. Essentially what you will see are six or seven small-stakes amateurs at the table with two or three competent pros.

CT: And your table?

DE: As soon as I identify the players, I begin attacking my targets and opening up my ranges against the weaker players. This doesn't mean that I won't be defending and three-betting versus aggressive regulars, but I'm definitely more apt to take flops against greener players. This may seem like an extremely simple concept, but it all stems from the notion that these less-skilled players will be making more mistakes went put to a decision.

CT: What's your read on the villain?

DE: The villain and I both had been quite active at the table, and he was one of the players I was looking to get involved with.

Villain raises to 1,600 from the cutoff.

CT: You're in the small blind as the action folds to you. How do you interpret this bet-sizing?

DE: With this type of opponent, I am going to look at his actions from the simplest level, and I interpret this raise size as a weaker hand. He is telling me that he'd rather not play the hand out, and would prefer taking the pot down before the flop. His range becomes more heavily weighted toward small pairs, suited aces, and Q-J/K-Q Broadway hands.

Darrenelias reraises to 5,000 with the 9 9 from the small blind. Villain calls.

DE: His big opening raise plays into my strategy nicely, as it allows the stack dynamics to work for my flop move. By opening to 1,600, he lets me three-bet bigger and swell the pot preflop. Keep in mind at this point against this type of opponent that I'm most likely folding to his shove or four-bet preflop. This is because these inexperienced players are less likely to make a big play in a spot like this and reraise all in light, and are more likely to shove the top of their range with hands like J-J/A-K.

Flop: 10 5 2 (pot: 10,900)

CT: Most amateur players would be scared somewhat by the overcard out there and would play this flop passively.

DE: Assuming he is reshipping J-J+ preflop a good percentage of the time, the only hands in his range that really worry us are J-10 suited and A Q, K Q, and Q J types of hands. Nevertheless, at this point, we are concerned only with extracting maximum value from the villain. I bet out for less than one-third of the pot.

Darrenelias bets 3,350.

CT: Wait a minute. Talk about how donk-betting (betting into the preflop raiser when out of position) is the way to proceed in this spot.

DE: The object of this bet is to gain more value from hands he is folding if I were to flat-shove, like big aces and some smaller pairs. I would most likely take a different line against a competent opponent here, but I felt confident that I could manipulate the pot against this one.

Villain shoves all in for 10,549; darrenelias calls 7,199.

Turn: 6 (pot: 31,998)

River: 8 (pot: 31,998)

Villain reveals the A 7; darrenelias wins the pot of 31,998.

DE: Our villain takes the invitation to shove in, and I snap-call with my nines. The bet on the flop served my purpose of creating the illusion of fold equity in our opponent's head. There is one funny facet of this hand that deserves to be looked at, as well.

CT: What?

DE: By leaving myself with effectively a pot-sized bet on the flop, and being sure that I have the best hand at the moment, I'm never folding. Also, if I were to see a flop I hated, or the same flop with a hand toward the bottom of my range, like K-Q or J-8 suited, I would most likely be shoving in here against this opponent. Taking his particular hand as an example here, he is folding to my shove on the flop when he has the best of it, and shipping over my bet when he has the worst of it. I am essentially giving him two different options to make the wrong decision.




Hand No. 2

CT: I like the way you think. Let's do one more hand, from the final table.

DE: At this point in the tournament, we had been three-handed for quite some time, and were seeing a flurry of three- and four-bets preflop. The villain in this hand is a competent European player, who has shown he can be very aggressive with position.

Villain raises to 80,000 from the button; darrenelias reraises from the small blind to 286,000 with the A Q; Villain calls.

DE: He opens for around two and a half times the big blind from the button, which doesn't tell us much about his hand, and I put a big three-bet on him from the small blind. I don't want to give him too good of a price on the call in position, and my hand is strong enough that I don't mind swelling the pot preflop or even calling a four-bet.

Flop: K 10 5 (pot: 618,000)

Darrenelias checks; Villain bets 306,000; darrenelias raises all in for 1,391,466; Villain folds.

Darrenelias wins the pot of 924,000.

CT: This time, you don't lead out, as you've missed. But how can you make this move, since he was the preflop raiser?

DE: His call preflop doesn't give me much more information than his open, as we know this is a competent, positionally aware player who is calling the three-bet with a large percentage of hands from his opening range.

Versus this opponent when out of position, the most disheartening thing we could see from him would be a check. This is one of those situations where it's not what our opponent does that gives us information, but what he doesn't do. It may seem like a paradox, but because he has shown himself to be so aggressive with position, I'd expect to see him play a top-pair hand like K-Q or K-J more deceptively. I feel like he is rarely barreling out at this flop with his big hands, because of fear of missing value.

I think he is more likely to have a hand like 7-7, 8-8, or A-J here, as those are the hands he has to bet in this spot. From his perspective, playing a medium pair on that board becomes extremely difficult if he were to check behind on the flop and peel a card. He really can't be sure of where he stands when facing a turn bet, so the better line is to bet the flop. Unlike the first example, where we were dealing with an incompetent opponent, in this hand, we are actually using the villain's competence against him.

When he comes out for almost half-pot, I feel more comfortable with the strength of my A-Q. I check-raise all in, and expect to have seven outs to win when called. The many hands with which he is betting this flop and not calling a shove make this a profitable play.

Darren Elias has been playing poker for four years professionally. He graduated from the University of Redlands last year with a creative-writing degree, and enjoys reading and writing in his free time. He has more than $1 million in online winnings, and is making the transition to the live poker circuit.