Hand 2 Hand Combat -- Josh Bergman

Event: PokerStars no-limit hold’em tournament
Buy-in: $162
Players in the Event: 1,108
First Place: $29,916
Blinds: 300-600
Ante: 50
Players at the Table: 8
Stacks: JBT449 – 14,543; Villain – 31,147

The villain raises to 1,288 from early position.

Craig Tapscott: A raise from this position usually means a fairly strong hand, but in this instance, it’s the chip leader at the table. Can you talk about how you read these early-position raises, the trend to steal from there instead of the button, and so on?
Josh “JBT449” Bergman: What’s interesting about raise-sizing is that you used to be able to get a lot of information about whether a player was competent or not based on his sizing preflop. However, it has become pretty standard to min-raise [minimum-raise] all the way up to 2.5 times the big blind preflop, so even recreational players will use this sizing without necessarily realizing why it’s more effective. Therefore, based on his raise-sizing, I can’t assume too much, but in previous hands, he had kept his sizing semi-consistent to about 2.5 times the big blind. Since he has a lot of chips, I can also assume that he is opening fairly wide, even from early position.

CT: Do early-position raises still get a good amount of respect? And, talk about how it’s player-dependant.

JB: Early-position raises still get a lot of respect when the stacks at the table are right. It’s hard to assign a range with which people open from early position, but for this particular player, I would imagine that it’s fairly wide.

CT: Share more about the hand ranges and stack sizes of early-position raisers.

JB: The way that I read these raises really depends on the opener’s stack size. If he has less than 20 big blinds and is a competent player, I will generally give his raise much more respect. Consequently, people really can exploit this by opening very wide from early position with a short stack behind, since it looks extremely strong. To combat this, if people are suspicious of frequent early-position raises, they will begin to flat-call wider or three-bet.

CT: What’s your read on the villain?

JB: He had been raising pretty frequently at our table, and my image was pretty solid up to this point. I threw in a reraise from right behind him that I figured would look extremely strong with my sizing, about 2.2 times his opening raise.

JBT449 reraises to 2,800 from right behind the villain with the K 7. The villain calls.

CT: Your stack size has to be a huge factor in the villain’s eyes.

JB: Yes. I’m sure that I look extremely strong by having only about 20 big blinds behind after making it 2,800 total. The reraise also looks very strong because it appears that I am not worried at all about the five people yet to act behind me. So, I anticipated that he’d fold a decent amount of the time. And I was not that concerned about him flat-calling with a wide range against my perceived tight range, which made me feel as though he would check-fold a fair number of flops.

Flop: A 3 2 (pot: 6,900)

JB: When the flop comes ace high, I believe that it’s good for me. I choose to represent a hand like pocket aces or A-K with a small inducing bet.

The villain checks. JBT449 bets 1,893. The villain calls.

JB: I obviously am not thrilled with the check-call, but feel that a club draw makes up a decent portion of his range.

Turn: 5 (pot: 10,686)
The villain checks.

JB: When the turn is a 5, I am still in the mindset that I have three aces. When he checks, I elect to check behind, to act somewhat afraid of the potential straight, although I really doubt that he has many fours in his range, the way the hand has played out up to this point. When I check behind, I am not necessarily giving up on the hand, as my decision on the river will be very dependent on the river card, whether or not he bets, the timing/sizing of his bet, and so on.

JBT449 checks.
River: J (pot: 10,686)
The villain bets 7,800.

JB: He fires out a bet extremely quickly; it’s a little less than a pot-sized bet.

CT: Seems like a strange line for him to take. How did you interpret the bet? And, did the speed of the bet give you any read on his holding?

JB: I viewed it as very weak, because I didn’t see a whole lot of hands that he was representing here. Sure, he could have two-pair types of hands that he was betting for value. But, I did not think he was the type of player who would snap-bet a huge amount with those holdings; I figured that he would give it more thought and most likely bet a smaller amount.

CT: What else can the bet speed tell you?

JB: Generally, I will perceive quick bets from random/unknown players as weakness in a lot of circumstances like this. I am really thinking his range now is a missed flush draw. At this point, I’m thinking there is a good chance that I have the best hand, but …

CT: I detect a little hesitation.

JB: Well, the problem is, I can’t beat all of his missed flush draws if he has a higher K X, a missed draw that’s better than my 7 kicker. In addition to this, I’m still focused on selling my “story” to him, which seems very believable when I jam over his bet with only 2,000 more for him to call.

JBT449 moves all in for 9,800.

JB: This is how I most likely would play three aces against an opponent whom I had limited reads on. I wind up tank-shoving, and he goes into the tank. My read on this was that he was “Hollywooding,” since I couldn’t fathom any of his value range folding for 2,000 more, even though I looked extremely strong. At the same time, though, there was always a chance that he might lay down part of his value range, but given the pot odds, it was unlikely.

The villain folds. JBT449 wins the pot of 18,486.

CT: Please share the many ways that you tell a story in a hand. Also, share how you decipher the story that opponents are trying to tell you, and how you can throw a wrench into their plans.

JB: Against many of the regulars with whom you have a history, it is really important to remember how you played comparable boards in the past against them when deciding the optimal line to take in a hand. For example, what I have been seeing a lot lately is people check-raising on very dry boards and getting floated extremely light. Because of this, against the right players, it’s good to throw in a check-raise for value on a board that you might normally check-call, since you aren’t representing as much on dry boards, such as A-8-3 rainbow. That’s why, in high-stakes tournaments, you can’t just be barreling aimlessly on all streets. It’s important to adapt to the turn card and the river card, and to consider what hands you’re representing when you check behind on the turn after firing on the flop, and so on, to be able to sell a believable story on your bluffs. As for your value range, you want to take a line that looks as “bluffy” as possible in order to get maximum value. ´

Josh Bergman was born and raised in Brookline, Massachusetts. He’s a sociology major at Drew University. He has been playing poker for four years, and has cashed for more than $1.4 million in online tournaments.