Hand 2 Hand Combat - Andres Pereyra Utilizes Sharp Hand-Reading Skills Versus a Strong and a Weak Opponent

Hand No. 1
Event: Full Tilt Poker no-limit hold’em tournament
Buy-in: $163
Players in the Event: 451
First Place: $21,000

Andres “andressoprano” Pereyra raises to 100 from the hijack position with the 9♠ 9♣. The villain calls from the button.

Flop: A♠ 9♦ 4♠ (pot: 260)

Andressoprano bets 140.

CT: A lot of players might check here when they’ve flopped a monster. What’s the plan?

AP: Well, I decided to make a continuation-bet instead of follow a check-call or check-raise line that would look very strong and possibly get the villain to fold a one-pair hand such as A-J or A-Q.

The villain calls.

CT: So, what’s the best line to take to get maximum value?

AP: One of the difficulties of playing out of position is extracting value with big hands. If I check-call or check-raise, I show some strength, but a continuation-bet is standard in most cases, and my opponent will tend to feel more comfortable with his top pair. He will assume that there are bluffs in my range; if I check and call his bet, he will know that I’m not bluffing.

Turn: 7♣ (pot: 540)

CT: How does this card affect your plan of action?

AP: This is a perfect card for me; if my opponent is on a flush draw, he missed, and if he thinks I’m drawing, he will continue to call me. I don’t want to check and give him the chance to check behind, which is what he will do with all of his draws and one-pair hands. I want to keep building the pot, in order to set up a large river bet. So, I …

Andressoprano bets 350. The villain calls.

River: Q♣ (pot: 1,240)

AP: I loved this river card. It missed the flush draw, and gave him top two pair if my read was accurate that one of the hands that he could have was A-Q. He would have a very hard time getting away from it.

Andressoprano bets 1,760.

CT: What are you trying to do with this large bet?

AP: Represent a missed flush draw or an overplayed A-K.

The villain calls and reveals the A♦ Q♦. Andressoprano wins the pot of 4,760.

CT: Well-played. Can you share any more sage advice for playing a monster hand out of position?

AP: Playing out of position is extremely awkward, and when we have a big hand, it’s really difficult to extract value. Most of what we do will look strong, but I’m of the opinion that betting looks weaker than check-calling. Check-raising will force opponents to make tough decisions, and quite possibly second-guess themselves. Check-raising also eliminates all of the bluffs that opponents could possibly try, which forces us to play against the very top of their ranges, and when they don’t have strong hands, we lose all of the value that we could extract. Also, against decent players, it’s really hard to make any profit. Forcing them to fold when we have a strong hand will cost us a lot of money, since many of them will fold one-pair hands, especially when it’s unlikely that they have top pair and top kicker.

Hand No. 2Event Full Tilt Poker $750K Guarantee tournament

Buy-in: $216
Players in the Event: 3,624
First Place: $128,000

Andres “andressoprano” Pereyra raises to 24,000 with the 10♠ 2♠.

CT: Set the stage for this hand. What are all of the factors that made you decide to open from the button with the 10♠ 2♠?

AP: When it is folded to me on the button and I have 10-2, I normally will fold. The reasons I didn’t were: (A) The player in the small blind was very bad. I had been watching all of the tables after we got down to about 45 players, and already had taken notes on him. He liked to see most flops, no matter what his position was, and his post-flop play was weak. In one of the hands that I observed, he had check-raised out of position and folded to a shove that offered him 4-1 on his money. I felt comfortable in playing against him with any two cards post-flop. (B) The person in the big blind was a good player with about 24 big blinds left, and she would either reraise me or fold preflop. If she came over the top, I wouldn’t have to think very hard before folding my hand.

The villain calls from the small blind. The big blind folds.

Flop: A♥ Q♠ J♠ (pot: 65,000)

AP: This is one of the best flops I can hope for with my hand — a flush draw and a gutshot.

The villain checks. Andressoprano bets 26,000.

AP: I think this bet will work when he completely misses the flop. But …

The villain raises to 64,000. Andressoprano moves all in.

AP: When I made my continuation-bet, I decided to go with a small amount, to leave myself room for a large shove just in case he raised me.

CT: There has to be more to the story of why you shoved. I know that it’s your only chance of winning this pot, but please explain.

AP: Against a good player, I wouldn’t expect to have any fold equity after being raised, but in this particular case, my opponent had shown very poor pot-odds knowledge, a tendency to check-raise and fold, and overall weakness that I was trying to exploit. I was expecting to get him to fold his hand enough times to compensate for the fact that if he called, I would be an underdog. By betting small, I anticipate that if he raises me, it also will be for a small amount. Now he has to face a fairly big shove, and probably will fold most of the time.

CT: So, it’s all about your equity in the hand?

AP: Yes. When we have a drawing hand with no overcards and are up against a pair, our opponent is the favorite to win at showdown. A way to increase our equity in the hand is to gain as much fold equity as possible. If we have a 40 percent chance of winning but force our opponent to fold 10 percent of the time, we’ve eliminated his advantage. The more that opponents fold, the bigger our equity. This may sound very simplistic, but it’s an absolute truth: Every time opponents fold, we are making money without being forced to hit one or more of our outs, thus reducing the inherent variance associated with the game.

CT: And did he call?

AP: Yes. He used almost his entire time bank, and with less than five seconds left, he made a crying-call.

The villain calls and reveals the A♣ 9♥.

Turn: K♦ (pot: 533,532)

River: A♠ (pot: 533,532)

Andressoprano wins the pot of 533,532.

CT: You have the reputation of being a great hand reader. Can you share with our readers a few keys to developing good hand-reading skills?

AP: Experience is key, of course; however, I would say that the main key to developing my hand-reading skills has been the countless number of hours I’ve spent doing hand-history reviews. I spend at least one hour a day reviewing my own hands, and since August 2010, I have spent an average of 18 hours a week reviewing my students’ hand histories. That is a lot of time spent anticipating situations, analyzing what a villain’s possible holdings are in every spot you can imagine, and trying to understand what he can have in order to play the way that he did. When I do reviews, I like to stop the action before showdown in key hands, and make an educated guess about an opponent’s possible holdings. All it takes is either natural talent, which I lack, or the discipline to work really hard, which is something I try to do every day. ♠

_Andres Pereyra started playing professionally in March 2009 with a $125 bankroll, after being laid off from his job as a carpenter. He has won the UltimateBet $200K tournament, for $48,000, and finished second in the Full Tilt Poker $750K tournament once and chopped it heads up another time, for $82,000 and $105,000, respectively. He has more than $1.3 million in career online-tournament cashes. He currently coaches a group of students and is hired for private sessions. He recently joined the Pokerpwnage.com training site, where he produces tournament videos. _