Final Table Takedown - Jim Anderson Employs Patience and Trapping to Take Down First Major Title

Event 2010 inaugural World Series of Poker Circuit Regional Championship

Players in the Event: 226
Buy-in: $10,000
First Prize: $525,449
Finish: Firs

Hand No. 1
Stacks: Jim Anderson – 660,000; Shannon Shorr – 900,000
Blinds: 5,000-10,000
Antes: 1,000
Players at the Table: 7
Players Remaining: 14

Key Concepts: Being aware of what your image is in the eyes of other players; not going on tilt after a big mistake; staying away from playing pots out of position against good players

Shannon Shorr raises from early position to 25,000. Jim Anderson reraises to 67,000 from the small blind with the A♣ Q♣.

Craig Tapscott: Had Shorr been very aggressive as the final table approached?
Jim Anderson: Shannon had been very active and was opening a lot of pots, and it was working well for him. He had one of the biggest stacks left in the tourney, and I had a decent stack, as well. I had a fairly solid image.

CT: What were the options that you considered with A-Q suited?

JA: Well, I could flat-call his raise, since we are playing fairly deep relative to the other stacks. But I just hated playing a hand like A-Q out of position against a dangerous player like Shannon. I’m going to miss a ton of flops, and it’s going to be hard for me to win the pot unless I hammer the flop. I thought my best option was to three-bet and possibly take the pot down. Since I wasn’t getting involved with him a lot, I thought I would take down the pot a good amount of the time, because my hand looks very strong by three-betting a bigger stack out of position.

CT: Planning ahead, what did you think Shannon’s reaction would be to your raise?

JA: I thought there was a good chance that he would flat-call in position. When I three-bet preflop, I was developing different strategies for how to play this hand post-flop. What happened next didn’t necessarily surprise me, but it caught me a little off guard, since I didn’t see Shannon four-bet much throughout the time that I was playing with him.

Shorr reraises to 155,000.

CT: What now? Move all in?

JA: So much went through my mind at this time. My first instinct was to perhaps shove all in, and I probably should have acted on that feeling. As I thought longer about it, I became more timid about pulling the trigger. I was a complete random player to him, and he is definitely four-betting light a ton there, and trying to outplay me.

CT: How are the stack sizes relevant when coming to a decision about how to proceed?

JA: The stacks were at a pretty good size for a four-bet, because I had enough chips that he could easily fold and wasn’t committing himself to a call if I shoved. I also could fold, and not much harm would be done. I still had a pretty good stack, but sometimes I get stubborn and don’t like to be outplayed. It really felt like he was making a move. Here’s where I make a pretty big mistake, and end up just calling the reraise. At the time, I was thinking that I had a good stack to shove over most continuation-bets, and although that was true, it would be way more effective if I had position.

Anderson calls.

Flop: J♣ 8♠ 7♦ (pot: 327,000)

JA: That’s obviously a horrible flop for my hand, and I’m pretty handcuffed with what I can do.

Anderson checks. Shorr checks.

CT: What did you make of Shorr’s check?

JA: Shannon’s check behind surprised me a bit, but it makes sense with a lot of hands. Hands like nines and tens seem like a standard check behind on that flop. But I doubt that he’d four-bet me with those hands, unless he wanted to get it all in, which I don’t know that he would with our respective stack sizes. He also could be checking behind with a monster, but he most likely has a hand with showdown value, and since he’s in position, it’s a pretty safe move.

Turn: 3♥ (pot: 327,000)

CT: Can you take the pot away from him after he showed weakness on the flop?

JA: I definitely could lead out here, and in hindsight, that probably would be the best play, but during the heat of the moment, I really felt like he was calling most bets, if not raising.

Anderson checks. Shorr checks.

JA: At this time, I’m thinking that I could possibly have the best hand, and that Shannon was giving up on the hand and putting me on a huge hand. He also could play A-K like this, and there are still a lot of hands in his range that he could have four-bet light and caught a decent flop, and wants to get to a showdown cheaply.
River: 2♦ (pot: 327,000)

Anderson checks.

JA: I quickly discarded leading out, as I felt that the only folds I would get were from hands that I beat.

Shorr checks, and turns over the K♦ 2♣. Shorr wins the pot of 327,000.

JA: I was sick to my stomach after he turned that hand over, and was instantly regretting every which way that I played the hand. Luckily, there was a break the next hand; otherwise, I might have gone on tilt for the rest of my stack. I came back after the break and refocused. It just shows that you don’t have to play perfect poker to win a stacked tournament like this. Just minimize the mistakes that you make, maximize the profits from other people’s mistakes, and run really good!

Hand No. 2

Key Concept: Employing bet-sizing to induce a player to make a mistake

CT: What’s your strategy in this situation when you have a short stack sandwiched between two larger stacks and there are big pay jumps?

JA: I was more focused on the fact that Gabe Patgorski was going to try to abuse me, and finding ways that I could combat that. If we were more even in chips, I could attack him more. But since he would still have more than 1 million even if he completely doubled me up, that gave him a huge comfort factor and enabled him to attack my stack more. Some strategies that I planned on employing were pot control with medium-strength hands and flat-calling a lot of his raises preflop. I preferred this approach instead of getting into a raising war preflop, where he might put me to the test. Although I was well aware of the decent-sized pay jumps, I wasn’t going to play too conservatively and miss a good chance to take a big chip lead and possibly win the tourney.

Jim Anderson raises to 90,000 from the button with the J♠ J♣. Gabe Patgorski reraises to 300,000 from the small blind.

CT: When Patgorski reraises you here, is he playing you against the shorter-stacked Bernard Lee?

JA: With Lee having less than 20 big blinds, I already expected Gabe to attack me pretty relentlessly, since the pay jumps were pretty significant at the time. Luckily, my mind wasn’t focused on the money, but on my next move. I could flat-call in position, but there are so many flops that are going to kill my hand or kill my action.

CT: So, what’s the best option?

JA: I thought my best option was to four-bet, and call if he shoved. I felt that the bet-sizing of my reraise would be very important in this spot, because if I reraised too much, it would basically tell him that I was committed to this pot and never folding. A lot of people wouldn’t do that with J-J here, as it’s a very vulnerable hand, and they wouldn’t want to put their tourney life on the line with Lee as the short stack. I decided to reraise to 650,000. I wanted him to think that I could be four-betting with air, or even four-betting and folding a decent hand. I wanted to leave plenty of room for him to make a mistake.

Anderson reraises to 650,000.

CT: And if you had chosen to reraise to a larger amount?

JA: I think that if I had reraised to 800,000, it would look like I’m never folding, and that would never induce him to shove light. He ended up tanking, and …

Patgorski moves all in. Anderson calls. Patgorski reveals the A♠ 6♥.

Flop: J♥ 9♥ 3♣ (pot: 4,845,000)
Turn: Q♥ (pot: 4,845,000)
River: Q♦ (pot: 4,845,000)

Anderson wins the pot of 4,845,000. ♠