Hand 2 Hand Combat -- Randy 'nanonoko' Lew

Event: PokerStars six-max $1-$2 cash game
Blinds: $1-$2
Players at the Table: 3
Stacks: Randy “nanonoko” Lew – $211; Villain – $219

Randy “nanonoko” Lew raises from the button to $6 with the K 10.

Craig Tapscott: I’m curious. You usually play no-limit stakes up to $50-$100. What are you doing in a $1-$2 game?

Randy Lew: I was playing a session at lower stakes to make an educational instructional video.

The villain reraises to $22 from the big blind. Nanonoko calls.

RL: It’s a three-handed game and play has been very aggressive. Thus, calling a three-bet with this hand is fairly standard.

Flop: A Q Q (pot: $45)
The villain bets $26.

RL: I expect the villain to continuation-bet with all of his air range, since the board hits a three-bet range very hard because it consists of many high-card types of hands.

CT: This flop hit your hand pretty hard.

RL: Yes. Any diamond or jack could easily give me the best hand. Regardless, unless he already has a full house, my equity is very strong. Now, combine that with my fold equity, and it makes raising a strong play.

Nanonoko raises to $62.

RL: If my opponent has a value hand that he’s willing to go with, it doesn’t matter if I raise small or large. In this case, I raise slightly more than a min-raise [minimum-raise].

CT: Why did you choose the smaller raise size?

RL: Raising small is better for me because it creates situations that enable me to make a more profitable scenario. For example, if he has two random diamonds, such as the 8 7 or the 7 6, my raising small gives him the illusion that he has some fold equity by reraising. If I am up against other diamond draws, I am crushing him badly in regard to equity. If I shove all in over his continuation-bet, he’s probably going to fold an 8-high flush draw. Also, if he has a hand like J-10 or K-10 and chooses to shove over my flop raise, I will be crushing him in regard to equity, as well.

CT: What range do you believe the villain is putting you on when you raise?

RL: When I raise small on the flop, my range looks very polarized — very strong value hands or air. And it’s even more polarized because he might not think I would raise with an ace on the flop because of the paired queens, which would be very thin if he has a hand that crushes an ace already, like A-K or better. Also, he would expect me to four-bet preflop with hands like A-Q and A-K, which further polarizes my range.

CT: Are there any other advantages to raising smaller in this spot?

RL: There is another bonus. He could potentially make a small three-bet bluff to some amount around $100 with pure air, because he may think my range is very polarized and weighted toward air.

CT: And what problems could you possibly face if you raise a bit larger?

RL: I don’t raise to around $70 or $80 because it leaves him less room to rebluff me. If I raise it that large, it looks more pot-committed, whereby I won’t be folding to any more bets post-flop, which would remove some chance that he’ll rebluff me with pure air or a weak draw.

The villain calls.

RL: It’s a bit surprising to me when he chooses to call. I would expect him to shove with any queen and any ace, because the stack sizes are getting shallower.

CT: Could he be slow-playing a monster?

RL: He might consider slow-playing hands with an ace or queen, since my hand looks very polarized and heavily weighted toward air. However, I do think that this is a lot less likely because I’m in position. Since he’s out of position, he runs the risk of letting me take a free card on the turn with a diamond draw. For that reason, I don’t put much weight on strong hands like an ace and a queen.

Turn: 6 (pot: $169)
The villain checks.

CT: Now what’s the best way to proceed?

RL: Well, I have several options. One of the great things about being in position is that I have the option of closing the action as I see fit. My equity is still decent despite there being only one card left to go, as I can still hit a diamond or jack to win the pot for stacks against an ace or queen. I choose to take the free card and try to hit, and see what my opponent does.

Nanonoko checks.
River: 3 (pot: $169)
The villain moves all in for $135.

RL: At first glance, all I have is king high, and you’d think that it’s a fold right off the bat, as my hand strength is very weak.

CT: What hands could he be moving in with?

RL: I can see him calling my flop raise with two diamonds weaker than my hand, and then if it is checked through on the turn, he can shove on the river and expect me to fold all of my air range. He also could have a hand like K-J, K-10, or J-10 that he thinks might not be the best hand, so his shove is trying to force me to fold everything that isn’t value.

CT: So, you think he set up this shove with the float on the flop?

RL: Because my raise on the flop is very polarized and heavily weighted toward air, I can see him making a very advanced play by floating out of position. He can hope that it’s checked through on the turn so that he can go all in on the river. Another reason that I think he can float out of position is that when I raise the flop and the stacks get shallower, he may be too worried to throw in another raise as a bluff with a hand with no equity, such as 10 high or something.

CT: Is there any way that this is a very thin value-bet?

RL: If he has a hand like K-K, J-J, or something that hit a 6 or 3 with a flush draw or random out-of-position float, I wouldn’t expect him to shove all in, as it would be too thin a value-bet. I would expect him to check those hands that are too thin to bet for value, as my range is heavily weighted toward complete air. Because of that, it removes a lot of hands, such as pocket pairs, that beat my king high.

Nanonoko calls. The villain reveals the J 5. Nanonoko wins the pot of $423.

RL: I ended up calling by combining hand analysis with gathering other forms of imperfect information. If you do that, you’ll be on your way to making optimal poker decisions.

Randy Lew is one of the biggest and most consistent winners in online high-stakes cash games today. He has won more than $1.7 million, mostly by multitabling 24 no-limit hold’em six-max cash games. He is an instructor at www.pokernewsstrategy.com. He also achieved Supernova Elite status the last two years at PokerStars, and was recently invited to join Team PokerStars Online. He graduated from the University of California, Davis with a degree in managerial economics.