Hand 2 Hand Combat -- Brian Hastings

Event: Online pot-limit Omaha cash game at Full Tilt Poker
Stacks: Brian Hastings – $135,982; Patrik Antonius – $267,853; David Benyamine – $112,287
Blinds: $300-$600
Ante: $100

Craig Tapscott: Looks like you sat down at an easy table.

Brian Hastings: (Laughing) Normally, I would not play a three-handed game with these two, as they are very successful players, but the game had been fuller, and when it devolved to three-handed, I was winning and felt confident. So, I decided to play more. This hand is played against Patrik, who I believe is one of the best pot-limit Omaha players in the world.

CT: Is there any metagame going between the two of you?

BH: The main relevant history with Patrik is that I have seen him call river bets on scary river cards that hurt his hand a few times, and he won some of them. Those hands were not against me, though.

Hastings raises to $1,800 from the button with the Q J 5 3. Both Antonius and Benyamine call.

CT: Is this a standard raise with this hand against these opponents?

BH: My opening range with an effective stack of 200 big blinds is very wide on the button, and this is a very standard open for me. I may have folded if we were playing shallower and the blinds were reraising frequently, though.

Flop: K 6 4 (pot: $5,700)
Antonius and Benyamine check. Hastings bets $4,800.

BH: I decided to bet the flop when it was checked to me, mainly because I don’t expect to get check-raised very often, given the stack sizes.

CT: How do the deep stacks factor into your decision on the flop?

BH: At a stack depth of 100 big blinds, I would check the flop, mainly because I’d expect to get check-raised more frequently by hands like top pair plus the king-high flush draw, the nut-flush draw, and maybe two pair, and I don’t think I could profitably call a check-raise against a range of this nature. However, at 200 big blinds deep, I expect to get check-raised much less frequently by drawing hands, unless they are very strong, like the nut-flush draw and an open-end straight draw. And the cards in my hand make these holdings more unlikely for my opponents. Check-raising other draws would lead to many awkward turn spots for my opponents with still a lot of money left behind, so I didn’t expect it to happen often.

Antonius raises to $20,100.

CT: It happened. Patrik never seems to stick to an opponent’s plan.

BH: Yes. I had a very close decision to make here.

CT: What hands are you putting him on?

BH: I expected him to check-raise mainly with sets, and with very strong draws like the nut-flush draw with an open-ender, or two pair and a flush draw. I would have preferred that the K be on the board, as that would eliminate a lot of flush-draw combos that he could have, but I still didn’t expect to see them that often. And, I think that if he had top set with the king-high flush draw, he would often slow-play. Also, I expected to get paid off nicely if I hit the open-ender. I decided to use my position and call. It’s a bit of an aggressive call, but I think it’s a good one.

Turn: A (pot: $45,900)
Antonius bets $45,900.

CT: Easy call here?

BH: Given my decision to call the flop, I have a trivially easy turn call. The ace gives me some additional outs, as a 10 now makes the nut straight for me.

River: 7 (pot: $137,700)
Antonius checks.

CT: Do you check behind in this spot, or do you shove?

BH: Well, I have about half a pot-sized bet left in my stack.

First, I’ll share my thoughts on the reasons to shove:

1. I improved my hand to the fourth-nut flush (I have a straight-flush blocker, as well). This is a very strong hand, although I don’t think it’s very likely that it’s any different than a 3-high flush, or even a straight, here. I think Patrik’s range consists of mostly sets, occasionally big flushes, and almost never flushes smaller than mine.

2. If Patrik had a better flush than mine, he would often shove the river himself to try to get me to call with hands (small flushes and straights) with which I would call a bet more often than I would bet myself. So, while it’s possible that he’d slow-play here, I think it’s unlikely.

3. Patrik is getting 3-1 to call a shove, so even though the board got scary, he might feel compelled to pay off a bet with a set. I have seen him make similar calls a few times in the past.

CT: And to check?

BH: 1. Well, the river card is perhaps the worst card in the deck for a set. Despite the odds that Patrik is getting to call a river shove, it will seem extremely unlikely that a set is still the best hand now, so Patrik will likely fold it.

2. Patrik could be trapping with a bigger flush. Although I think this is unlikely, it’s still a possibility. For a bet to have a +EV [positive expected value], I need him to call more often with a worse hand than mine than he calls with a better one. If he slow-plays big flushes enough and folds sets enough to a bet, betting won’t have a +EV.

Hastings checks. Antonius reveals the K K 9 2. Hastings wins the pot of $137,700 with a jack-high flush.

CT: You told me you had a great pot-limit Omaha hand for this column because you thought your play was debatable in several spots, and that once you reviewed it, you felt you hadn’t played it optimally. What went wrong?

BH: In hindsight, I think checking the river was the incorrect play. The main reason for this is No. 2 under “reasons to shove.” I guess that I kind of froze up at the time, but after thinking about the hand, I really think he would have shoved if he had rivered the nut flush or second-nut flush. He knows that I have a draw and that I can never fold it when getting 3-1 against a shove, given the action. Assuming this is correct, a river bet doesn’t really have any risk, so even if he calls only 5 percent of the time that he has a set, I’m profiting hugely, and I think he probably calls more often than that.

Brian Hastings, 21, will be a senior at Cornell University during this school year. He is a regular in the high-stakes pot-limit Omaha games on Full Tilt Poker, and also occasionally plays high-stakes no-limit hold’em, mixed games, and multitable tournaments. He recently finished second in a $2,500 buy-in six-handed Full Tilt Online Poker Series event, for $297,500. He also is an instructor at Cardrunners.com