Hand 2 Hand Combat -- David Cairns

David Cairns Applies Pressure on the River With a Check-Raise Bluff-Shove

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Craig Tapscott: I like the format of the FTOPS event. Please explain it for Card Player readers.

David “muckducks” Cairns: It was a six-max four-times shootout. Essentially, what that entails is that the player who wins will have sequentially won four tables comprised of six players.

CT: Which table is this hand from?

DC: This one is from the first table, where I emerge the winner.

CT: You had just captured an FTOPS event a few days earlier. Congratulations.

DC: Thanks. I won the first FTOPS event of this series, so I was going to be confident in entering another event in the same series. Right off the bat at this table, I opened a ton of pots — always trying to gain position in the hand, of course — and developed a very aggressive image early.

CT: Once it was down to heads-up play, was the Villain holding his own?

DC: To his credit, he was playing decently well against me. I can’t say for sure, but I am under the impression that he was hitting flops more than he was playing that well. But, I guess most poker players like to think they are better than their opponents.

CT: It’s always important to understand the game flow and momentum of a match before analyzing what actually happened. All of those factors determine how you will play each and every hand. Let’s move on to the actual hand.

Villain raises from the button to 200; muckducks calls with the 9 7.

DC: Given how deep we are, most of the time I’m just going to call here and see a flop, because my hand plays very well post-flop. There are some instances in which I will reraise, but given my image as a “loose cannon,” this is the perfect time to see a flop, as my reraises will not get the respect that I need them to get.

Flop: 5 4 2 (pot: 400)

DC: I’ve flopped nothing, but I have backdoor straight and flush possibilities, and for an aggressive player like me, that is enticing. I know my opponent is good enough to know that he should be continuation-betting close to 100 percent of his range when he raises preflop in a heads-up situation. I also know that he knows my range is so wide that it almost doesn’t have to hit any flop that hard.

Muckducks checks. Villain bets 275.

DC: I elect to float him with all of these endless backdoor possibilities (laughing). But it’s also important to note that my 9 and my 7 are likely to be clean outs if I hit them on the turn.

Turn: 8 (pot: 950)
Muckducks bets 550.

CT: Clue me in on the method behind the madness of why you lead out on the turn. I assume that it’s basically the only chance you have to win the pot.
DC: True. This turn card did not help me much — it gives me a gutshot 6 for the nut straight, and nothing else — but it also most likely did not improve my opponent’s hand. Therefore, I want to try to blow him off what I deem to be two overcards in this situation a lot of the time, and with this turn, I can sort of start to represent more of the board; it makes the possibility of a bluff start to come out of the woodwork.

Villain calls 550.

CT: How’s that bluff feeling right about now?

DC: When he calls my bet, it makes me want to puke. Now I’m done with the hand, but wait …

River: 8 (pot: 2,050)

DC: When the 8 comes on the river, it’s the perfect card for a check-raise bluff all in — if you’re crazy like I am.

CT: You’ve lost me.


DC: Let me explain. I have absolutely zero chance of winning this hand if I decide to lead out and bet the river. The reason is, my opponent will call me with a lot of his range that he deemed to be the best hand on the turn. Hands like a random one pair, pocket pairs 2-2 to J-J, and conceivably even J-J to A-A are all possible; then there are the random missed draws he floated me on the turn with, and random ace-high hands, as well.

Muckducks checks.

DC: I check, knowing that most of the time, he will check back and I will lose the pot. The interesting part about this hand is that my opponent is good enough to bet marginal hands for value and good enough to bet his missed draws, knowing that he has no showdown value.

Villain bets 1,325.

DC: And knowing that he is likely betting for marginal value or has a missed draw, this once valueless situation has now become a profitable spot for my favorite play in poker — the check-raise bluff all in on the river.

CT: I’m skeptical. So, what are you representing?

DC: Aside from the factors I just laid out, the fact that I called his c-bet [continuation-bet] on the flop and then led the turn represents a lot of different things. Some of them, my opponent probably deems to be legitimate hands — but ones he perhaps has equity against or can bluff when I, in all likelihood, check the river, as I did — and others he knows to be complete air, as I’m sure that he thinks I might float with nothing, then try to take it down on the turn.

CT: So, why was the 8 a great card for you on the river to pull off this play?

DC: The fact is, it was the perfect and almost only card I could use to represent a monster.

CT: Why?

DC: The match was on a high enough level that, first of all, I knew I could pull some tricky things against this guy. The 8 coming off on the river is really the only card that is scary enough to opt for a check-raise bluff. I’m telegraphing to my opponent that I have either trip eights or a full house. The line I took in this hand is the exact same way that I would play a monster like 2-2 or 4-4, and also the way that I would play trip eights if I had them. The fact is, I just as easily could have had the 8 7 instead of the 9 7, and I would have floated the flop and bet the turn in the same fashion. Also, against smarter opponents, occasionally I’ll get really tricky and play a made hand like A-A or K-K in this way. In a nutshell, without the 8 pairing the board, I cannot be believed very easily, but when it comes, there is no doubt that a smart opponent will have a very difficult time calling what I have outlined to be a very wide range of hands.

CT: And you said that your opponent was a good player, which means …

DC: Good players know that when they are check-raised on the river, most of the time, they are beat. In essence, I knew that he was good enough to make the fold, so I pulled the trigger.

Muckducks raises all in for 9,097. Villain folds. Muckducks wins the pot of 3,375.

David Cairns was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. He was an avid ski racer and pursued it at a fairly competitive level, but quit before attending college. He graduated recently from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, with a degree in political science and a minor in marketing. He started playing poker at the age of 17. He recently won the FTOPS $216 no-limit hold’em event No. 1 for $216,513. He also recently took down the Full Tilt Poker $65,000- and $22,000-guaranteed tournaments for $22,000 and $11,600, respectively.