Hand 2 Hand Combat -- Paul Zimbler

Event: Cash game at Irish Open 2010
Blinds: €2-€5
Game: No-limit hold’em

Paul Zimbler: I’m in the big blind and there has been a straddle from a rock. The player under the gun plus one (UTG +1) has made a raise. I find 10 7. I know this isn’t good but I decide to see a flop. I have to call €25 into a pot of about €130. There are four callers in total.

Pot: €150.
Flop: 8 7 4
Zimbler checks. UTG checks. UTG + 1 bets €50. Folded to Zimbler who calls, as does UTG.

Rebecca McAdam: What is the reason behind you calling the bet post-flop — do you think you are ahead or do you believe that regardless you can outplay them?

PZ: I have recently had some connection to 10-7. I nearly passed it as I was out off position but I am able to get away from it if I only have half a hand and if I hit as I did I get well paid and can outplay them.

Turn: 7
Pot: €300

RM: What now?

PZ: I now decide to bet out €125 to see where I am so that I do not go broke in this hand without information and also so I can get the maximum if I am the winner.

Two opponents call.
River: 10
Pot: €675

RM: When they flat called on the turn, what were you thinking they may have? Did this worry you at all?

PZ: On the turn I was 100 percent I was ahead, this is why I bet for the info. If the river was a blank I would have checked to induce the bluff.

RM: The 10 completes the flush draw and also gives you a full house. How do you get value here?

PZ: As I am first to speak I have a think about what action to take. If I check, will they check behind me with a paired board or an over-pair? Will they call the check-raise? I decided to bet out, the pot is now €675, and I am surely going to get called. The stacks were about even with us each having about €1,000 behind. I bet out to look weak — €200 and get an instant call from the rock and then a raise from the initial raiser all in. I know if he has 8-8 or 10-10 that is just bad luck and there’s nothing I can do, so of course I call.

UTG shows a jack-high flush and passes.

PZ: The player UTG + 1 asks me do I have a full house. My reply was simple — what do you think! He showed A K and he managed to do his stack in a hand that he should never have done it in. What was the raise for? He was only getting called by a hand that beats him, and if it was for value should he not have min-raised me?

RM: Why do you think he raised you — do you think it was because he was too caught up with his nut flush that he might have missed the fact there was a paired board?

PZ: He is a donkey trying to get value and doesn’t think about the game, just sees his hand and wants to get paid.

RM: Do you think the player UTG (the straddler) should have stayed in the pot for the amount of time he did?

PZ: No, he knew he was behind. I wish he was bad because he would have called. I was amazed he called my first bet.

RM: I guess the lesson is to only raise when you know you have the ultimate nuts. He sounds like the kind of player you want sitting at your table!

PZ: Oh yes! He could have min-raised to get value but he’s so bad he would have called me if I re-raised, even though he would have known he was behind. Too many players don’t understand value and they lose a lot of money because of it. Remember you can’t eat value.

Paul Zimbler is always on the go in the poker world, whether it’s online, live, or a televised event. The Englishman, also known as “The Marbella Kid”, takes his preparation for the game very seriously, and this recently paid off at the Irish Open when he took down the €750 buy-in pot-limit Omaha Championship side event for a payday of €36,400. Zimbler set a new poker record last year at the World Series of Poker Europe when he played for 78 hours and 45 minutes straight against 183 opponents, raising £35,000 for charity in the process.