Generation Next -- Hayden Fortini

“Who is Nipsman?” As spring spun into summer, no one knew. The forums were ablaze, speculating (albeit tongue in cheek) that he possessed X-ray vision and was able to see everyone’s cards. “He’s a computer bot.” Surely, that must be the answer. How else could Nipsman emerge from the ethers of cyberspace to kill it online, cashing for more than $100,000 so quickly. More speculation arose. “Is Nipsman for real?”

An in-depth investigation was launched. Of course, no bone goes unchewed when the Internet forum pit bulls are rabid to uncover a possible conspiracy. Soon after Nipsman captured the PokerStars $1,000 Super Tuesday event for $59,040 in June, the news hit the Net. Nipsman was revealed to be just a normal yet poker savvy 19-year-old Florida native, Hayden Fortini.

No scandal ensued. Fortini had been smashing the cash games and tournaments at the Isle of Carpi Casino in Pompano Beach for months, before bringing his deceptive game online. This past March, he took out professional Chad Brown on his way to victory in a $900 no-limit hold’em event, which was good for $59,000. A few days later, he would take down a $900 heads-up no-limit hold’em event for a cool $50,000. Card Player recently tracked down the young phenom to find out how a devious poker mind ticks.

Craig Tapscott: Your game has grown leaps and bounds since you first started playing $100 no-limit hold’em cash games live. What have you learned to ratchet your game up another notch?

Hayden Fortini: I have more insight into how players will play certain hands. Usually, they are playing them only one way. You then can take advantage of what they know.

CT: Give me an example.

HF: Let’s say I’m deep in a tournament at a table with a very good player who knows that I’m a solid player, and I have 20 big blinds. He has 40 big blinds and has everyone to his left covered. When he opens from the hijack position, it will be with a pretty wide range of hands. I have something like the A 9; usually, a lot of players would shove.

CT: Many players can’t wait to push in any ace against an aggressive player.

HF: Yes, but it looks even stronger if you flat-call there, in a strong player’s mind, because if he knows that you are a regular player, he is putting you on A-A or K-K. He is more afraid of a flat-call. You then can just take the pot down with a bet. There are certain things you can do to freeze up good players where you know you will get credit for a hand.

CT: OK, reverse the positions and stacks. What are you thinking about in late position versus 20-big-blind stacks in the blinds?

HF: If I know that they are capable of shoving on me, I’m not raising unless I’m willing to call their shove.

CT: How do you induce a shove if you pick up a real hand?

HF: I’m going to raise about 2.2 times the big blind, making it look like a raise that is screaming, “I’m trying to steal the pot.” You want to represent what you don’t have and never play your hand faceup.

CT: What kind of strategy do you employ early in tournaments?

HF: I think you can never be wrong to play tight, especially if you don’t have a lot of experience with deep-stack play. You can get yourself into a lot of tricky spots after the flop, and you might make a lot of mistakes.

CT: Like what, for instance?

HF: A mistake that people make is raising A-J from under the gun when the table is nine-handed and there are no antes in play. You really should be folding that every time. You should never be limping, because if somebody raises and you call the raise, that is one of the worst things you can do. What now? You have no idea what you are rooting for on the flop, no idea where you’re at in the hand. And many times when you hit and your opponent puts a lot of chips in, it will be hard to drop your hand.

CT: Do you ever limp?

HF: I never encourage limping in. You should raise in most situations with 100 percent of the range of hands that you will play from any position, and you also should be mixing it up. I like to raise hands for deception, like the 6 5 from under the gun. If I get three-bet small, it’s usually a huge tell that the guy probably has A-A or K-K. If I have to put in only 5 percent of my chips and I hit the flop, I’m going to stack him most every time, because he’s never going to put me on that hand.

CT: Thanks, Hayden. I’m sure that we will be seeing you at the top of the Card Player Online Player of the Year standings very soon.