Hand 2 Hand Combat - James Bord Bounces Back

Event World Series of Poker Europe Main Event
Entrants 346
Prize Pool $5,470,592
Top Prize $1,313,611
Blinds 400-800

James Bord: A player in early position raises to 2,750, but the player has been opening a lot from early so it’s no biggie. Dan Shak re-raises from the cut-off to 15,000. It’s a large three-bet. I have pocket jacks on the button. I don’t want to push and have him call with only hands beating me, with the exception of A-K, but I don’t think he’s got much of a hand — it’s such a large raise it’s like he doesn’t want to play the hand. So I call 15,000 with 105,000 behind.
Pot: 33,950
Flop: Q-9-6 rainbow.
JB: Dan Shak bets 110,000.
Rebecca McAdam: What did you think he had?
JB: Absolutely fuck all! But I still had to think about it because I had an underpair to the queen, and the blinds aren’t that big in relation to my stack size. I don’t want to be guessing. I thought about it for like five minutes. I had no reason to call, I wasn’t under any immense pressure stack-size wise.
Bord calls. Pot: 253,950.
JB: Shak says, “Good call A-Q” to which I showed him J-J. He had A-6 for bottom pair. The best part of it all was that he walked up to my two friends Andrew Feldman and Illya Trnycher and said to them, “He can’t win the tournament making calls like that.”
RM: You’re not serious!
JB: I saw Barry Greenstein in the Vic [Victoria casino] after the event (he was sitting to my left on the table), we laughed about that.
RM: Why do you think he raised so much preflop?
JB: A mistake? Trying to steal? Badly thought out bet-sizing? His raise size made me think he was weak.
RM: And then tried to steal again on the flop?
JB: I have no idea. On the flop he thinks probably it’s hard for me to call with A-Q even because he can show you aces and kings there so often, and for my tournament life etc… Dan obviously doesn’t know me very well [smiles].
RM: What kind of bet would have got you to lay down the jacks?
JB: 9,750, but it’s all situational. In that spot I would have laid it down if he’d made it something around 9,750.
RM: What about on the flop? Were you ever going to fold with the weird bet-sizing preflop?
JB: I’d strongly consider folding if he bets half or three-quarters the pot — I may start to believe him. Like half-pot I’m worried he wants me to ship etc… and at best I’m guessing, but the bet-sizing again was way off, he could have had aces and that was fine, but I decided no way near enough of the time for me to fold my hand. In his range at the top are A-A, K-K, even 9-9, but I mean in that spot, I felt it was a good spot to get my chips in.
RM: Obviously the turn and river were bricks, and it was onwards and upwards from there.
JB: I had enough chips to play from then on in. I was all in once before the final table after that with aces. Apart from that, I chipped up nicely the rest of the time.
RM: I know it’s all situational but do you have to be careful with over-bets like that as maybe the player wants you to think he wants you to fold, when really he wants you to call? Reverse psychology.
JB: Yes, he could have been doing that but again sometimes players play hands better than me. That’s life, there’s always someone better. However, I didn’t feel this was one of those occasions, and I think I’d be playing very loose and pushing people off turns and rivers and he may not have wanted the hand to go any further. There was a part of me that thought this was how he was going to stop that happening — by making me call my whole stack, that is, he didn’t want to lose the hand on the turn, check give it up etc… or even bet fold the turn. In fact I’m not sure Dan thought that deeply about it, but whatever, maybe they were both factors.
RM: This was a key hand then for you.
JB: Yeah, for two reasons. One, I got my stack back and promised to play more sensibly, and two, I had played a hand correctly. I obviously, in a session, stack off light sometimes and make crazy plays but it was the first time I had played just like I would online, sitting on my sofa. I was comfortable enough in my environment to open up my game a little. It was a good confidence booster.
RM: Do you think the fact you can stack off light and go a bit crazy sometimes works to your advantage also though, as people may never know when you have it and when you don’t?
JB: Well in the Poker Million I called an all-in after opening with Q-10 thinking the guy had a small pair. I lost the flip, but it helped. I had people pass to my blind when the blinds and antes were large, so yes I suppose that helps.

James Bord did in fact go on to win this tournament, receiving his first WSOP bracelet in what many believe to be one of the poker world’s most prestigious events. A name only previously known among high stakes cash circles, Bord has fast become one to watch on the tournament scene. Shortly after his win in London, he went on to impress in the above-mentioned Poker Million, and also take down the 2010 Poker Cup High Roller event in Marrakesh for a $247,000 payday. Card Player talks exclusively to Bord about winning the WSOPE main event and his life before and after in next month’s issue.