Hand 2 Hand Combat -- Casey Jarzabek

Event: PokerStars no-limit hold’em tournament
Buy-in: $300
Players in the Event: 900
First Place: $60,264

Hand No. 1
Blinds: 25-50
Players at the Table: 9
Stacks: bigdogpckt5s – 2,875; Villain1 – 2,535

Craig Tapscott: What’s your mindset early in tournaments?

Casey “bigdogpckt5s” Jarzabek: At this point, I’m generally playing pretty standard ABC tight poker. I try not to get involved in a lot of pots, but I play my premiums aggressively. There are always a few people early in tourneys who are playing lots of pots, trying to build their stacks.

CT: You’re playing a ton of online tourneys each week. Can you share some of the leaks that you see over and over again in the weaker players?

CJ: I think the biggest edge in poker nowadays, and a definite leak among the weaker players, is bet-sizing. I can tell a good player from a poor player just by how he opens, or continuation-bets. A weaker player is just giving away so much equity over the course of a tournament.

CT: Explain more in depth what you mean, please.

CJ: You have to remember that when your open is bigger, your c-bet [continuation-bet] must be bigger. Everything is multiplied. If my main goal at this point of the tournament is to be aggressive and steal a lot of blinds and antes, I want to minimize the damage when I do play a pot. So, if the big blind was 2,000, I would open for 4,400, while someone else would open that pot for 6,000. If we get three-bet and have to fold preflop, he has lost 1,600 more than I have.

CT: That’s huge over the long run.

CJ: Yes. Over the course of a tourney, this can mean the difference between being able to sustain a loss of a big pot and being knocked out of the tournament. And if we flat-called preflop, I would be able to c-bet half the pot, which would make my bet around 5,800, but because his open was bigger, he now has to c-bet about 7,500. And again, if we are pushed off our hands, he has lost quite a bit more than I have, when he could have accomplished the same thing with better bet-sizing.

CT: Great. That’s very helpful advice. Let’s get back to the hand.

Villain1 limps in from under the gun; bigdogpckt5s raises to 250 with the K K; Villain2 calls from the small blind; Villain1 calls.

CJ: I don’t really want to play this pot with four or more people, and I know that the unknown player under the gun will call this raise. The small blind is a regular and someone I consider to be a very good player, and he flats [flat-calls] my raise.

CT: When the small blind flats, what range do you have him on? Being a very good regular, it can’t be very wide, and has to give you pause for thought.

CJ: Well, since there is a limper from under the gun, and then a big raise from me, I really don’t have him on a super-premium hand. I have him trying to set-mine me. He probably has a pair — 2-2 to 9-9. He’s right in assuming that I have a big pair, and he hopes to hit a set and stack me with my overpair.

Flop: Q 6 5 (pot: 800)
Villain2 checks; Villain1 bets 350.

CT: When an unknown player limp-calls a raise preflop and then leads out, what hands do you put him on?

CJ: I know that he didn’t hit a set, because why would he lead? So, I know that this guy has hit the queen. He doesn’t have A-A or K-K, because he definitely would have reraised me preflop. I have him on A-Q, and am 95 percent sure that he’s going to stack off.

CT: And on the flip side of the coin, what would you be thinking if a solid player you respect led out in this spot?

CJ: It definitely would be pause for concern, because I usually lead with my sets. Depending on who the regular is, I may decide to go to the house, or I may release the hand.

Bigdogpckt5s raises to 1,150; Villain2 folds; Villain1 reraises to 1,950; bigdogpckt5s moves all in; Villain1 calls, revealing the K Q.

Turn: A (pot: 5,370)
River: 10 (pot: 5,370)
Bigdogpckt5s wins the pot of 5,370.

Hand No. 2
Blinds: 1,200-2,400
Ante: 150
Players at the Table: 8
Stacks: bigdogpckt5s – 128,434; Villain – 32,565

CJ: We’re now fairly deep in this tourney. I am thrilled with my table, and am opening literally 40 percent of the pots. Basically, I’m just stealing a lot of chips and starting to build a nice stack.

CT: Let’s switch gears, then. Share your optimal strategy late in a tournament with a stack of your size.

CJ: It is optimal to have a very tight table. There are so many chips to be won if you are able to take down pots by opening and not having anyone contesting you. I sometimes laugh when people tell me that they run bad late in a tourney. Everyone runs bad late. You have to accumulate enough chips to take a beat or two late and still stay in the game. So, the strategy is to pick up pots that other people wouldn’t, so that you can sustain the inevitable “bad beat” and still have enough chips to carry on.

Bigdogpckt5s raises to 3,799 from under the gun with the A♠ 9♦. It’s folded around to the big blind, who calls.
Flop: K Q 2 (pot: 9,998)
Villain checks; bigdogpckt5s bets 4,899; Villain calls.

CT: You can’t be too happy with his call, can you?

CJ: Well, it’s obvious to me that I am beat at this point. I figure there is one hand I’m ahead of, and that’s J-10. I don’t really have him on that hand, though, because I doubt that he would flat with his stack size and that hand preflop.

Turn: A (pot: 19,796)
Villain checks.

CJ: For me, this changed the dynamics of the hand completely; now I’m looking to get to showdown, because my hand could be good here. He has a very awkward stack size, and I don’t want to get check-raised all in on this turn. So, when he checks to me, I decide to play pot control.

Bigdogpckt5s checks.
River: 2 (pot: 19,796)
Villain checks.

CJ: When the river is a deuce, I’m pretty happy with my hand. If he has an ace — which I don’t have him on — I figure we’re chopping. And if he slow-played K-Q, it’s a great river for me. So when he checks, I decide that I have to value-bet.

Bigdogpckt5s bets 7,999; Villain shoves all in for 23,717.

CT: I’m sure that you knew this was a possible result of your value-bet, right?

CJ: Yeah. I’m obviously making this value-bet on the river only if I’m planning on calling a shove. Otherwise, I would have just checked and hoped to take down the pot.

Bigdogpckt5s calls; Villain reveals the K J; bigdogpckt5s wins the pot of 67,230.

Casey Jarzabek has cashed for more than $2.5 million in online tournaments. He started playing online poker when he broke his foot in six places while sliding into second base in a charity baseball game and was bedridden. He made $40,000 during his first two weeks of play, and quickly realized that he could possibly make a living at poker. He recently made the final table of a couple of WSOP Circuit events, and finished second in a WPT preliminary event at Foxwoods. He has won or chopped eight Sunday major tournaments. Last year, he finished ninth in the Card Player Online Player of the Year race.