Final-Table Takedown: Jake Cody Understands the Importance of Table Dynamics in Preflop Play

Jake Cody is a British poker player from Rochdale, England. He won the 2010 PokerStars European Poker Tour Deauville main event, for $1,199,000. The former psychology student is acknowledged as one of the brightest rising stars on the live-tournament circuit. Online, he is known as “Neverbluff67.” He has won more than $650,000 in online tournaments alone.

Event: World Poker Tour London Poker Classic main event
Players in the Event: 171
Buy-in: $7,634
First Prize: $425,492
Finish: First

Hand No. 1
Stacks: Jake Cody – 220,000 Huckleberry Seed – 130,000 Villain – 150,000
Blinds: 3,000-6,000
Antes: 750
Players at the Table: 9

HAND NO. 1

Key Concepts: Table dynamics; stack sizes; hand ranges

Craig Tapscott: I know that the hands leading up to the final table are very important in establishing your image and building a stack. So, set up the table dynamics for this hand for us.

Jake Cody: I’d been moved to this table around an hour prior to this hand, and was sitting to the direct left of Huckleberry Seed. I had been reasonably quiet, and had won only pots with no showdown. A new, inexperienced player had been moved to the right of Huck, and had been limping a lot. So, Huck had been isolating him by raising to play pots in position against the weaker player. I was aware of this, and knew that he was doing it with a wide range of hands.

The villain limps in from the hijack seat. Seed raises to 21,000 from the cutoff.

JC: I look down and see the 8♦ 8♠ on the button.

CT: That’s a tough hand to play preflop at this point in the action. Could you go through your options and how stack sizes help you to determine what decision you will make?

JC: Well, the stack sizes are a little awkward here. If Huck had closer to 250,000, I may have had to fold, because all of my other options wouldn’t have been good. We would not have been deep enough to set-mine. It also wouldn’t be a good idea to three-bet and then fold if he moved all in, turning our hand into a bluff. Also, playing that deep, I don’t think that I would have been able to three-bet and call if Huck shoved all in. Although he’s a great player, I didn’t think that he would move all in with a wide range while playing that deep, but may have chosen to just flat-call preflop. That would have made the hand really difficult to play, given the size of the pot and the stack sizes remaining after the flop.

CT: Given Seed’s stack size, then, what’s the optimal play?

JC: Well, with him having 130,000, it made things a little easier. I couldn’t call, because we were too shallow to set-mine, and 8-8 is a very difficult hand to play post-flop when you are playing it for value rather than just set-mining. So, I decided that calling was out of the question. Therefore, I’m left with folding or raising, and given that I’ve picked up on the fact that he’s trying to abuse the weak player, I felt that 8-8 was too strong to fold here. But I’m not loving the situation if he does move all in, because any raise that I make would be committing me to the hand and giving me the correct odds to call.

Cody raises to 57,000.

CT: Why that bet-sizing?

JC: I decided to make my sizing a little bigger to put him off being tempted to call and to hopefully put him off moving all in, even though I would be calling if he did. I think that in live tournament poker, it’s very important to be taking as many low-variance lines as you can in the middle and early stages, because it’s essential to get close to the money, and the last few tables are where your edge really starts to count.

The villain folds. Seed moves all in. Cody calls. Seed reveals the A♦ Q♥.

CT: I don’t think you expected as strong a hand as A-Q.

JC: No. I think I’m unlucky to run into A-Q there, really, because he was raising such a wide range in that spot overall.

Flop: K♣ 7♥ 2♠ (pot: 280,250)

Turn: 4♦ (pot: 280,250)

River: 8♣ (pot: 280,250)

Cody wins the pot of 280,250.

Hand No. 2
Stacks: Jake Cody – 2,300,000 Kristoffer Thorsson – 1,800,000
Blinds: 15,000-30,000
Antes: 4,000
Players Remaining: 6

HAND NO. 2

Key Concepts: Understanding table dynamics; knowing when to reraise light

CT: Set up the table dynamics at this point of the final table for us.

JC: This is a very interesting hand that came up at the final table. Fabian Quoss had just been eliminated, so Kristoffer Thorsson and I were left fighting each other for control of the table. We hadn’t played a lot of hands together, but I had three-bet him in a few spots and it had gotten through every time.

Cody raises to 67,000 with the 4♦ 3♦ from under the gun.

CT: What makes the dynamics just right to raise with this hand from that position?

JC: Everyone was playing tight, so I felt that it was a good spot to raise. It was folded around to Kristoffer.

Thorsson reraises to 200,000 from the big blind.

JC: Now, at this point, he knows that this play looks really strong, and that it’s hard for me to do anything without a hand.

CT: What’s your read from watching his bet-sizing?

JC: Well, I felt that his sizing weighted his hand range much more toward air type of hands than hands he would three-bet with and get it all in for value.

CT: How can you make these assumptions? Is it all from the metagame that you’ve created between each other up to this point?

JC: What happens is that it becomes a huge leveling war when you get two aggressive players fighting it out. He would be trying to put me in awkward spots, but I wasn’t totally sure how capable he thought I was to deal with the situations that arose. I was playing a 1,800,000 effective stack and couldn’t just four-bet all in, because we were far too deep and there wasn’t enough in the pot to justify it, so I decided to …
Cody reraises to 367,000.

JC: This puts even more pressure on him, as we both have more chips than the rest of the table. But, he paused, asked how much I had, then …

Thorsson moves all in.

CT: Yikes!

JC: I know.

Cody folds. Thorsson wins the pot of 606,000.

CT: Did he ever reveal what his hand was in that spot?

JC: I found out later that he had A-6.

CT: Wow. I guess that he just got tired of being bullied by you.

JC: Yes. I give huge credit to Thorsson in this hand. I wasn’t sure if he would pull the trigger, but he did, and he owned me in this hand. That happens sometimes, and you can’t beat yourself up about it.

CT: Upon further review, would you have played the hand the same way?

JC: Looking back, I think that I would have played it the same, except that my timing before I made it 367,000 was maybe a little bad.

CT: How so?

JC: I think that I acted a little too quickly, and maybe should have tanked for a while and then raised. I’m happy overall, though. It was a good spot. It put immense pressure on Kristoffer and put him to the test, which he passed with flying colors. Not too many players would have. Thorsson played amazingly well at the final table. I was very happy to see him eliminated in fourth place, as he was a huge threat. ♠