Hand 2 Hand Combat -- Ludovic Lacay

Event: EPT Monte Carlo 2008
Players: 842
First Place: €8,420,000
Stacks: Ludovic Lacay: 22,000 Villain: 19,000
Blinds: 100/200

Rebecca McAdam: Can you set the scene?

Ludovic Lacay: My opponent is pretty loose/bad, a little bit aggressive. I’ve been running over the table and I’m leading so far with about 22k-ish. We started with 15k. I’m on the button with 10-9 off-suit. One guy limps under the gun and I decide to isolate him (he’s limping alot and I want the pot to be heads up). So I raise to 600. The small blind who is a really tight swedish guy calls, and big folds. Limper calls, three to the flop.

RM: Were you afraid of what this Swedish guy has since he is tight?

LL: Well he looked smart tight. So I think he knows I’m isolating here.

RM: What were u putting him on?

LL: He would probably three-bet a good hand, like a pair of tens or better, and A-Q or A-K. So I know it’s something like a small pair, or suited connectors, maybe K-Q/Q-J.
Flop: 7-7-2 rainbow. (2,000 pot)
Swede checks; Limper bets 800.

RM: Why do you think he did this?

LL: My first idea here is that he’s either trying to find out if he has the best hand, or maybe trying to steal the pot with nothing. Of course he can have a monster, but what kind of hands can he limp/call with here except A-2, pockets twos, and pocket sevens? That’s not so many hands, and im not even sure he would lead with such a monster.

RM: Does your position mean a lot to you, or do you think you’re good enough to play these guys despite the fact that you are on the button?

LL: Well it’s a good thing here to be on the button because on the flop if I decide to raise, the Swedish guy, who is probably the guy with the best hand on this flop most of the time, won’t be able to call with someone acting behind him, and I put a lot of pressure on the limper who is either leading a weak hand, or trying to steal the pot.

RM: Has your position come to mean less because you feel you are a good reader and can adapt to any position?

LL: No, I’m actually very tight out of position, except playing heads up versus a bad player, and that’s not really a common situation in _EPT_’s, especially because when a bad player decides to raise preflop, there is always someone to call him. So, here he leads. I’m pretty sure that he’s weak like almost always, and again, the Swedish guy who might have a decent hand here, cannot call me if I decide to raise. Of course I can’t call ten-high on the flop to try to steal the pot later with two people against me, so I decide to raise his 800 to 1,800.

RM: What do you raise without putting yourself in danger?

LL: I want to put enough pressure on him so he has to fold when he has nothing at all, and at the same time, I want him to call me on the flop with a one pair type of hand, and lay down on the turn, so I maximize my value. At the same time I balance my range, because I don’t think I would raise here with quads, full, 7x, or an overpair too big, but I would always bet big on the turn. So that’s my plan. 1,800 flop, and something like 3/4 of the pot on the turn, and give up if I’m called.

RM: Your decision is made without knowing the turn?

LL: Yeah because I think he won’t call me unless he has a monster or a small pair, and a small pair only has two outs. So actually most of the turns are scary for him. I raise to 1,800.

RM: Realistically you’re not playing your cards at all here.

LL: Not at all. Just risking 1,800 to win 2,800, and if that doesn’t work, risking 5,200 to win 7,200 on the turn (something like that). The swedish guy folds, and my opponent now thinks, and after a minute announces raise to 5k total.

RM: Are you thinking he’s strong or trying to get you out of the pot?

LL: Well, a level 1 player, who doesn’t really try to see what I see, abc player, let’s say — His strong range here is 7x, 7-7, 2-2. Of course a very good player could try to make that bet with any pair, hoping I might float him/rebluff him, but he’s not that kind of player. What kind of hands can he limp UTG that have a 7 in it? 7-6, 8-7, 7-5s, 9-7s, and A-7s (but I have a 9 so one combination of 9-7s is gone). We have to consider how often, when he has these hands, he’s going to three-bet them on the flop to 5k, even if it is the absolute nuts to him. He will slow-play the hand a certain percent of the time. Here my image is very important —I had been very active, raising flops often and betting turns often too, taking pots uncontested. So, I think he’s going to slow-play his hand a high percentage of the time. For him to have a real hand here, he needs to have a really small range and actually decide to play it in a very unlikely way, and would he lead most of the time with a monster here? Not even 50 percent of the time I think. All that combined, I’m pretty sure here he has nothing at all.

RM: But you only have ten-high.

LL: Yeah, so forget about calling down the bluff, I’m going to have to take the pot before the show down, and I have to maximize my risk reward here.

RM: Could you push?

LL: I decide to be smart. Shoving is definitely an option that I would pick against a very aggressive player, who would always shove the turn with a bluff, and then I wouldn’t be able to win the pot. But here, I’m pretty sure his 5k bet is his last shot to win the pot, and if I call it, he’s always going to check the turn with nothing. And then I will always win the pot with a smaller bet than an all-in bet, except of course if he hits something on the turn. When I shove here, I sometimes get called and lose a monster pot. When I call the flop, and he checks the turn, then I know I have the best hand.

Lacay calls.
Turn: 10 (12,000 pot)

RM: So now u actually want him to call/bluff?

LL: The plan was to “bluff the turn” but hey, I’ve got top pair now. I don’t need to bluff anymore. I can just wait for him to bluff. So stop the machines, and slowplay.
Villain checks.

LL: Now all I have to consider is — what are his chances of outdrawing me on the river. It’s pretty unlikely that he limps K-Q/A-J/ A-Q etc preflop, so he has maximum one overcard, and maybe a small pair under ten. He has 2 or 3 outs maximum, and when he hits them, he’s not gonna bet them anyway, unless he hits a two-outer giving him a full, so I’m always going to see a showdown when I lose.

RM: The odds are against him.

LL: Yeah. He’s going to hit his card six percent of the time. I have to compare that to the percentage of the time he would bluff on the river, and the extra value I get from that.

Lacay checks.
River: 2, Villain bets 7,000. (19,000 pot)

RM: Would you push all in here to get more out of him, because you feel confident you are stronger?

LL: As I said, there is nothing here he can have and he needs a hand to call me. The point of raising at any point is to 1) bluff, 2) value raise, and 3) protect your hand. It’s the river, so I don’t protect. I have a pair and think it’s good, so I never raise to bluff because there is no value in raising, he’s never going to call with a worse hand. If he calls I have lost most of the time. His range is polarized. Given the previous action, he either has a monster or nothing at all. If no worse hand is calling, there is no point in raising. You might think there is always a little bit of value somewhere, but even if there is, there is also somewhere the counterpart, where u actually don’t have the best hand and lose a bigger pot and your tournament life. So it’s never good to go for the ultra-fancy, value-thin shove. The pot was so big, he had decided to take another stab at it. There are a lot of important concepts here — risk reward with when to decide to bluff, polarized range, and isolating preflop.
Lacay calls. Villain shows A-6 suited. Lacay wins pot.

Ludovic Lacay is a 23-year-old French pro who has had some devastatingly good results both online and live in the past few years. Most recently, he finished eighth in the EPT Polish Open for $41,382, and in his home town, took down the Barrière Poker Tour de Toulouse earning $40,000 and a ticket for the final.