Final-Table Takedown -- Carter King

South Carolina native Carter “ckingusc” King, 23, has cashed for more than $2 million in online tournaments. In 2008, he chopped and then won the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker main event for $1,265,432. In March of this year, he won the PokerStars Sunday Million for $193,697, and also finished sixth in a $2,500 Full Tilt Online Poker Series event for $101,000. King was a student at the University of South Carolina before turning professional shortly after his 21st birthday in 2007.

Key Concepts: Pot control, hand-reading.

Craig Tapscott: You’ve won some huge online events. What are a few of the keys to getting deep in these massive fields?

Carter “ckingusc” King: I think patience is really underrated these days; you can still play aggressive poker while remaining patient and finding good spots. Also, winning pots without showdowns is important; the more times you can win a pot on the flop or turn, the less you will have to rely on flips late. Also, running good helps (laughing).

Ckingusc raises from the cutoff to 1,234,567 with the A J. Bbs99 calls from the small blind.

CT: What’s your take on his call from out of position?

CK: He appears to be a poor player who flats [flat-calls] too many hands and plays poorly post-flop.

Flop: J 5 3 (pot: 3,169,134)

Bbs99 checks. Ckingusc bets 1,885,000. Bbs99 raises to 4,500,000.

CK: When he raises in this spot, I feel I always have the best hand, as he seems pretty straightforward and calls with his marginal hands and reraises his premiums. For this reason, I feel I can eliminate a lot of overpairs from his range. There is only one hand that has an open-ender and one hand that has a gutshot. However, I think he would call with these hands, rather than semibluff.

CT: What range of hands are you putting him on?

CK: I assume that he’s check-raising this flop usually with a small second pair type of hand, or top pair, trying to just take down the pot or “see where he’s at.” Also, factoring in that we are deep-stacked, it will be hard for him to continue even with a big jack, like K-J or Q-J, so …

Ckingusc calls.

Turn: K (pot: 12,169,134)

Bbs99 bets 5,000,000.

CT: What’s he betting here?

CK: When he does this, I’m pretty sure that he doesn’t have a hand like the K Q or K-J.

CT: Why?

CK: Well, I think he would either bet bigger or check, hoping to trap. So, I think his hand here is usually a weak jack or a bluff; also, he sometimes might be making a weak semibluff with spades.

Ckingusc calls.

River: 6 (pot: 22,169,134)

Bbs99 checks. Ckingusc checks. Bbs99 flips over the J 9. Ckingusc wins the pot of 22,169,134.

CK: I thought about value-betting in this spot.

CT: Really? Why didn’t you?

CK: Well, at the time, I was thinking about value-shoving the river; however, I didn’t think with the spade out there that he would call with a weak jack for most of his chips, and also that he would never call when I have him beat. Also, keeping 20 big blinds could be valuable if he actually checked a big hand here. However, thinking back on it, I think the optimal river play would be a bet of 5 million, as he would make a lot of crying calls for that price.

Key Concepts: Pot control, blind-versus-blind play.

Ckingusc calls from the small blind with the K 8. *xen checks.

CT: What’s your plan?

CK: I decided to limp here mostly just to see how he would play. The plan was to call a raise, and hopefully play the hand to showdown if I made any hand to deter him from trying to run me over later on with the other short stack.

Flop: K 9 4 (pot: 1,380,000)

Ckingusc bets 880,000. *xen calls.

CK: I decide to lead with top pair for around two-thirds of the pot, since I think he will float me with a lot of hands, and also for value.

Turn: 2 (pot: 3,140,000)

Ckingusc checks. *xen bets 1,500,000.

CT: It looks like he did just that.

CK: Yes. My reasoning was to allow him to bet his bluffs and floats, or to possibly value-bet a worse king or 9.

Ckingusc calls.

River: J (pot: 6,140,000)

xen bets 4,700,000.

CK: I had planned to call pretty much any bet on the river, and with the flush draw missing, only Q-10 gets there, which I think he would have raised preflop. Because he’s value-betting all worse kings, it’s a pretty standard call. It turns out that he value-bet a worse king, which wins me the chip lead.

Ckingusc calls. *xen reveals the K 6. Ckingusc wins the pot of 15,540,000.

Key Concepts: Abusing short stacks, restealing.

Bbs99 raises to 1,800,000 from the button.

CT: Set up the dynamic so far, since you’ve played with both of these players for quite a while.

CK: So far, I can tell that bbs99 is a weak player. He opens from the button for three times the big blind. I think that when he does this, he rarely has that strong a hand. First myself and then xen have been raising every single hand, and he was clearly wanting to win a pot. Also, a suited ace is going to play pretty well for fewer than 20 big blinds. So, the full three-times raise instead of a smaller raise seems to feel like a marginal hand that just wants to take it down preflop; but he doesn’t know that he should just be shoving or folding those types of hands with his stack size. So, I decide to three-bet, with the intent of calling.

*Ckingusc reraises to 4,050,000 with the A 2 from the small blind.

CT: Why this reraise amount?

CK: This raise size was intended to make him feel like he might have fold equity to get me off my hand. Since I intended to call no matter what, I might as well allow him to think he can bluff me out, rather than make it big and allow him to shove with only his best holdings, since he knows that I can’t fold. However, I made it a bit too small, and he decided to flat [flat-call], which is pretty much the worst decision for him.

Bbs99 calls.

Flop: K J 7 (pot: 8,880,000)

Ckingusc bets 4,857,500. Bbs99 folds. Ckingusc wins the pot of 8,880,000.

CT: So, you’re giving him absolutely no credit. Why the push all in?
CK: I shove the flop because there is so much money in the pot, and I still have a chance of winning without a showdown or even having the best hand if he calls. He does in fact fold (later, on the replay, I saw that he had A-4 offsuit).