Hand 2 Hand Combat --Laurence "riverman1" Houghton

Rebecca McAdam: Can you set the scene?

Laurence Houghton: I was at the European Poker Tour Copenhagen, and was mid-way through day 2.

RM: When you get to day 2, does the way you play change?

LH: Yeah, it does, I play more aggressively.

RM: So, what happened?

LH: I raise with 10 10 in middle position, and everybody folds to the big blind, who calls.

Flop: 6 3 3.

Villain bets half the pot; Houghton calls.

RM: Why just a call?

LH: I called as I had been on the table with him for a while now and knew he was very aggressive.

RM: Are you not in danger of him catching something?

LH: Well if he was bluffing which I thought he was, I wanted him to bluff his whole stack off.

Turn: Q

Villain bets 10,000; Houghton calls.

RM: What were you thinking at this point?

LH: When he bet 10,000, I thought about it for a while. He had 31,000 behind, I thought he could have a hand like A-3 or 4-3 suited. I thought he was more likely to have air or a hand like 5-4 or 7-4 but air most of the time, as he would check a six on the turn with the intention of calling a turn bet.

River: A

Villain shoves all-in for 31,000. Houghton calls.

RM: Were you worried now or did you think that he was committed and was trying one final push?

LH: The pot now being about 60-65,000, I had a long think again and thought that my hand was pretty face up by now. As I am a random, I thought he thought he could get me to fold a hand like 7-7 to J-J. So I called, he showed me pocket threes for quads. I mucked and said, “Nice hand, very well played.”

RM: This is not a common occurrence, but if you played the hand again, would you play it differently?

LH: I just went with my read really. I would fold the turn though! (laughs)
RM: Do you think you would have played this hand differently if it was online — or because you are more of an online player do you find that sometimes you play live tournaments as though you are playing online, and it doesn’t work out?

LH: I play pretty much the same as I do online. Online the blinds go up every 15 minutes, so I play a little more solid in live competitions.

RM: Hitting quads on the flop doesn’t often happen, do you have to remember to not change the way you play certain hands just because you were beaten the last time you played it that way?

LH: I just always look at the situation at the time and make decisions that way.

23-year-old Laurence Houghton has only been playing for two or three years, but has quickly scrambled the ranks and now is a successful British online professional. The young online specialist has managed to fly under the radar for most of his poker career, only to haunt the dreams of his virtual opponents who cannot get the better of him. He plays on many sites but mainly PokerStars (rivermanl) and Full Tilt (whatariver1), he recently took down $45,000 from the PokerStars Sunday $200 rebuy, but like many online whiz kids, is constantly in search for a major live win to add to his name.