Hand 2 Hand Combat -- Jason Koon

Event: UltimateBet $1,050 no-limit hold’em tournament
Players: 126
First Prize: $39,750
Finish: First
Players at the Table: 9
Stacks: Novasky – 4,415; SCOTTYTHEFISH – 5,125
Blinds: 20-40

SCOTTYTHEFISH limps in, as does Villain2. Novasky raises to 120 with the A J.

Craig Tapscott: The first thing I notice is that you’re facing a tough opponent I’m very familiar with, as Card Player featured him recently.

Jason “Novasky” Koon: Yes. SCOTTYTHEFISH is Scott Sitron, a very solid player who is ranked online and has a second-place finish in a World Series event.

CT: Explain your strategy this early in a big tournament and with such deep stacks.

JK: We start the hand with roughly 110 big blinds. This is very deep for an online MTT [multitable tournament]. I’m looking to flop huge and get tons of chips in with massive draws and sets at this stage of the tourney. Hands like overpairs and big Broadways need to be played much more carefully, considering that opponents are getting the right implied odds to play hands that flop well against overpairs and to play big pots.

CT: While we have the chance, can you go into some detail regarding your strategy and thinking early in a tournament? Does the buy-in change anything at all?

JK: Compared to other regulars, I would consider myself much more active early in tourneys. MTT players play a very solid preflop strategy deep in tourneys when stacks are shallow, but they aren’t always comfortable playing deep-stack poker. I am trying to become very proficient post-flop, so that I can have one more edge over the average regular. I will be looking for the soft spots at the table and will do the best that I can to exploit them. The bigger buy-in events are going to have tougher fields. This means that soft spots are typically going to be harder to find, so my strategy will change if I’m at a very tough table. Tougher tables are going to require one of two things: Either I play very carefully and wait for good spots, or I foster a certain image and manipulate my opponents by how they perceive me to play.

CT: What mistakes do you see players make over and over again during the first three or four levels of tournaments?

JK: I often see players overvalue hands like A-K preflop and post-flop. I have seen decent players stick in 150-200 big blinds with A-K when their opponent’s range is Q-Q+. Another mistake I see, typically with regulars, is that they play way too straightforwardly. Solid ABC poker is going to make you money, especially in medium buy-in events. But if you want to have a substantial edge in higher buy-in events, I would recommend dropping volume and focusing more on playing more creatively.

CT: Back to the hand, your raise seems kind of small, considering that there were two limpers before you.

JK: You’re right. I was playing several tables and made a mistake by not noticing the two limpers who already had entered the pot. I should have raised to around 200-220.

SCOTTYTHEFISH calls, as does Villain2.
Flop: J 6 2 (pot: 420)

JK: I have the A J, which means that I have flopped top pair and the nut-flush draw, which is very good.

SCOTTYTHEFISH checks, as does Villain2. Novasky bets 250. SCOTTYTHEFISH raises to 660. Villain2 folds.

CT: That looks like trouble. What’s your first step in evaluating this situation?

JK: The first thing I do is polarize my opponent’s range by considering a couple of factors. When I say that I polarize my opponent’s range, I really mean to say that I assign my opponent a range of hands. Then, I narrow his range of hands with certain pieces of information, such as how he played his hand preflop, and the sizing of his flop check-raise.

CT: Let’s do it.

JK: OK.

1. His preflop play: He limped in. This takes big pairs almost completely out of his range. It’s apparent that he is OK with playing a multiway pot with his holding, so his range is going to be weighted toward hands that flop well multiway and are deceptive. This means that he’s possibly going to be holding pairs 2-2 to 9-9, some suited connectors like 5-4, 9-8, J-10, and so on, and some suited aces.

2. His sizing on the flop: His check-raise size is pretty small, and the stacks are very deep. This doesn’t completely rule out him holding air or some flush draws, but given his line and the stage of the tourney, it’s far less likely that he is running a bluff. Scott is a very good player, and with stacks this deep, he would not be raising a dry flush draw, in my opinion. In my mind, the only possible draw in his range is something like the 5 4.

CT: Great stuff. And you really can’t fold, obviously.

JK: I can’t fold, considering how deep we are and the great price he is giving me to draw to the nuts.

Novasky calls 410.
Turn: J (pot: 1,740)
SCOTTYTHEFISH bets 1,120.

CT: Do you get a read off this bet-sizing?

JK: I have 3,635 left in my stack. I am very aware that his sizing on the turn is giving him a bet size of two-thirds of the pot on the river to get all of the money in.

CT: I know that most inexperienced players would have the “Cry of the Valkyries” blaring in their heads, visualizing the slaying of an opponent’s stack when that jack hit the turn.

JK: The jack on the turn is a very deceptive card. It makes my hand look even stronger, but could actually be one of the worst cards in the deck for me. Even though I now have some full-house outs to go with my flush outs, my hand could be drawing very slim to a full house here.

Novasky folds. SCOTTYTHEFISH rakes in the pot of 1,740.

CT: Wow. You really must have had a great read on Scott.

JK: Well, I decided to trust my hand-reading abilities and lay down my hand. I was very confident that his range was weighted toward sets, which had my hand crushed. I later talked to Scott, and he let me know that I was correct, as he had 6-6.

CT: You mentioned that this kind of laydown and read has been a growth factor in your game recently.

JK: A year ago, I never would have made a fold like that, and would have been out of the tourney. One of the biggest differences in my game is that I trust myself to make big folds and big calls a lot more now than I did in the past. By making a very big laydown against an extremely tough opponent, I stayed alive and ended up winning the tournament.

Jason Koon has a B.S. in finance and an MBA from West Virginia Wesleyan College. He quit his job selling group insurance in the fall of 2008 to pursue poker full time. A few of his big wins in 2009 have been the Full Tilt $1,000 Monday event for $93,000, the Full Tilt Sunday Mulligan for $53,020, and the UltimateBet $1,050 event twice for a total of $80,000. His biggest win, $267,000, came in a PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker event.