Generation Next -- Jake Toole

Jake Toole managed to build a $25,000 bankroll online by smashing medium-stakes tournaments during his freshman year at Penn State. Poker became part of his college curriculum, wedged between tennis-team practices and the pursuit of a psychology degree. He was smart. He was confident. He was disciplined. But then he dropped $20,000. It scared him. Instead of blowing the balance, he slid $5,000 into the bank, and took a hiatus from poker. He had experienced his first downswing.

When he decided to test the ebb and flow of the turbulent poker waters again, he was prepared. Long strategy conversations with other successful poker buddies at Penn State inspired him to persevere. Then, a $20,000 win in a $150 no-limit hold’em tournament at Full Tilt Poker fueled Toole’s bankroll and confidence. Now it was time to devise a plan — a specific plan designed to improve his hand-reading abilities and post-flop play.

To begin with, he played fewer tables, which enabled him to better adjust to specific players and their tendencies. Next, he began to dabble in cash games. They opened his mind to more creative play, especially post-flop. His game expanded exponentially. Within a few months, he took home a Full Tilt Online Poker Series $2,500 no-limit hold’em championship, a second in a PokerStars $215 Sunday Warm-Up event, and a 17th-place finish in the World Championship of Online Poker $10,000 high-roller event at PokerStars. In total, he cashed for well over $500,000.

“Playing cash games helped with deeper stacks and forced me to improve my hand-reading ability to win,” said Toole. “It has helped with many of my post-flop decisions. You really learn the optimum play on every street. Cash games stimulate your mind and make you think about the game much, much deeper.”

Toole relishes the moments when he can dive into opponents’ minds, rattle their confidence, and nudge them into making mistakes for all of their chips. Cash games have taught him to stay one step ahead and leave standard tournament play behind.

Craig Tapscott: What cash-game stakes have you been playing?

Jake Toole: Mainly the $5-$10 six-max deep games with antes on Full Tilt. You see a lot of three-betting in these games preflop. So, you really need to know how to analyze flop textures and assign a reasonable range to what your opponent can have. You need to know how to adjust to check-raises and find out if a player is capable of floating you. You see a lot more creative play in the higher-stakes games.

CT: Obviously, your tournament skills have improved.

JT: The cash games have opened up my mind a lot. I try to bring that into the beginning stages of a tournament, because that’s when you’re really deep. I try to play it as if it’s a cash game. I usually pinpoint a specific player and adjust my game to exploit him by using my position and attacking with small three-bets.

CT: Small three-bets? So, you’ve learned to be very creative with your bet-sizing.

JT: In general, I do a fair amount of three-betting early on when in position against perceived bad players. I will three-bet with tricky hands like suited connectors, and even with my big hands, I’ll reraise 2.2 times. They are rarely folding. If they have a huge hand, they won’t slow-play and will four-bet me. Then, I can just fold. I think it’s pretty disguising. If they don’t know my game, they might actually think that I have a big hand with which I’m trying to sucker them in.

CT: People don’t ever seem to fold to continuation-bets on the flop. You’ve said that you’ve learned to take advantage of that.

JT: People definitely react differently to a regular half-pot c-bet [continuation-bet] than if I bet one-third of the pot. When I bet smaller, people call out of position a lot with two overcards or gutshots. They become incredibly looser on the flop than they are on the turn. So, betting one-third of the pot (whether I have a hand or not) allows me to extract a little more value. Then I can fire again on the turn when they check to me.

CT: You don’t worry about giving a free card?

JT: No. The frequency that people give up on the turn is so high that it becomes an effective play, even if they know what I’m doing. And I also see people go crazy when I bet one-third of the pot, by check-shoving or check-raising. I make sure that I balance it out and don’t do it just when I’m bluffing, but also when I actually have hands.

CT: Great. Thanks for your time, Jake.