Final Table Takedown -- Justin Smith

Justin “Boosted J” Smith is one of the game’s hottest young players. An all-around talent, he is a feared player online and has 12 World Series of Poker cashes at only 22 years of age. He is a high-stakes, shorthanded ring-game specialist. He is frequently seen playing online as well as in live high-stakes no-limit hold’em, pot-limit Omaha, and mixed games in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, including the “Big Game” in Bobby’s Room at Bellagio. His online success includes chopping first place in the FTOPS III [Full Tilt Online Poker Series] main event for $232,000. In 2009, he earned a live-tournament reputation with five cashes in the WSOP in five different games. He then picked up $464,870 — his biggest win to date — by finishing third in the $15,000 World Poker Tour Bellagio Cup. He cashed five times at the 2010 WSOP, and then made his second final-table appearance in two years at the WPT Bellagio Cup. He also can be found at the training site Deepstacks University, where he is an instructor. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California, with his wife, Anita, and their dog.

Event: World Poker Tour Bellagio Cup VI
Players in the Event: 353
Buy-in: $10,000
First Prize: $875,150
Finish: Second

Hand No. 1
Stacks: Justin Smith – 2,300,000 Phil Ivey – 3,200,000
Blinds: 80,000-160,000
Antes: 15,000
Players Remaining: 4

HAND NO. 1
Key Concept: Being aggressive when you think you can take down the pot without the best hand

Craig Tapscott: I’m sure that you’ve played with Ivey many times in cash games and tournaments. Did you have a game plan to combat his style of play before going to this final table?

Justin Smith: I’m used to playing against top-notch players. Ivey is obviously very talented. My general game plan was to make sure not to get sloppy and to play as well as I could. Ivey didn’t distract me from my game plan very much. Coincidently, we ended up not playing many hands against each other.

Ivey limps in from the small blind.

CT: I didn’t know that Phil Ivey ever limped.

JS: Yeah. He had done it a few times. He had started limping instead of raising; early on, he was pretty relentless in raising my big blind when it was folded to him, since he had more chips. I had an awkward stack at the time, and was letting him get away with it a little because I really had very unplayable hands, such as J-2 offsuit, 7-3 offsuit, and so on.

CT: How were you able to combat this when playable hands came your way?

JS: Well, as it got more shorthanded, I came into some hands that played pretty powerfully preflop, in my mind, so I started really giving it to him with the all-in move. But in this hand, I looked down and saw the 7 2 in the big blind. I …

Smith checks his option.
Flop: 8 6 4 (pot: 380,000)

JS: This flop gave me a very pretty gutshot-straight draw.

Ivey bets 160,000.

JS: Because of his stack size, I figured that if I raised, it would put him in the position of having to make a very big decision for a big all-in play. He also could just call and see how the hand developed, which I thought was a more possible play for Phil than if someone else had been in his shoes, because he’s more capable of that than other players.

CT: So, you pretty much thought he had air here?

JS: I thought he was just taking a stab at the pot with two random cards — maybe bottom pair or a gutshot, like mine — and would have to succumb to my pressure. I decided to have some fun and play a little bit, so I …

Smith raises to 480,000. Ivey shoves all in.

CT: Not quite the outcome that you had expected.

JS: Nope. Oops! All in all, I like my play and don’t regret it, since I ended up knocking Phil out, anyway. But seriously, I think it would take a pretty big hand for Phil to move all in there, since not too many hands connected very well with that board. I’m assuming that he had at least top pair, and I’m anxious to see how it pans out when the episode airs on television.

Smith folds. Ivey wins the pot of 1,020,000.

Hand No. 2
Stacks: Justin Smith – 6,500,000; Moritz Kranich – 8,000,000
Blinds: 150,000-300,000
Antes: 25,000
Players Remaining: 2

HAND NO. 2
Key Concept: Following through with your read

Kranich raises from the button to 700,000.

JS: This may have been the hand that changed everything for me when it was heads up between Moritz Kranich and me at the final table.

Smith calls with the K J.

CT: Did you have a good feel for Kranich’s game at this point?

JS: I had played quite a few hours the previous day with Moritz, and of course had played the entire final table with him. Moritz did not seem to be the bluffing type; if he was, he was pretty good at it, since I never saw him get called on the river with a bluff. So, I gave him some credit. I also knew that he respected my play quite a bit, as he is an avid online player and knows a good amount about my play online and live, judging by some of the things that he had mentioned to me.

Flop: A Q 4 (pot: 1,450,000)
Smith checks. Kranich bets 925,000. Smith calls.

JS: I figured that he would make a continuation-bet on this flop. At this point, I also picked up a physical read that made me think he did not have a strong hand at all.

Turn: 3 (pot: 3,300,000)
Smith checks. Kranich checks.

River: 8 (pot: 3,300,000)
Smith checks.

JS: The river didn’t complete either flush draw. I checked, fully expecting him to check, even if he had made a pair of eights. Instead, he …

Kranich bets 1,550,000.

CT: So, what’s your read? Could your king high be good?

JS: I really didn’t know what was going on, as I was very surprised that he was betting, and he was betting less than half the pot. I was not sure if he was the type to bet a pair of queens on the flop, but I did know that he was capable of value-betting very thin, from some of the hands I had seen play out over the previous two days. I can honestly say that it really made no sense to bluff me here, as my most likely holding is a queen. I also frequently play any ace or stronger hands this way. After about 10 minutes of deliberation, I …

Smith folds. Kranich turns over the bluff, the 7♠ 6♦, and wins the pot of 3,300,000.

CT: Wow.

JS: For the first time in the tournament, he turned over a pure bluff. It was completely random and out of place, and made no sense. From this experience, I have decided that people play funny and do weird things when underneath the hot lights while being filmed for television. Given everything I knew about his play, I don’t really regret the decision not to call. People usually boast about the hands they won, but here, I showed two hands that I ended up losing. In poker, you should get used to losing a lot of hands. You can never win them all.