Final Table Takedown - Eric Baldwin and Justin Young Tell Both Sides of the Story During an Epic Heads-Up Battle

Eric Baldwin won his first World Series of Poker gold bracelet in 2009 in a $1,500 no-limit hold’em tournament. He has career tournament cashes of more than $4.1 million. In 2009, he won the Card Player magazine Player of the Year award. He is a member of Team UB.

Justin Young is a former mechanical engineer who quit his job to play poker full time in 2006. Although mainly a cash-game player, he has career tournament cashes of more than $2.9 million, and has made two World Poker Tour final tables.

Event: PokerStars North American Poker Tour bounty shootout
Players in the Event: 81
Buy-in: $5,000
First Prize: $157,280
Finish: First — Eric Baldwin

Key Concepts:

Eric Baldwin — The value of position in controlling how the pot plays out; the importance of knowing your opponent’s capabilities

Justin Young — Bluff-catching; thin value; hand-range reading

Craig Tapscott: Give me the lowdown on how you plan to take advantage of the knowledge you have of each other’s game now that you’re heads up.

Eric Baldwin: My playing strategy against Justin is usually to let him monkey off his chips. I wait until I make a decent hand and then try to feign weakness and pick off bluffs. I avoid trying to win every pot against him, since he is extremely creative and doesn’t give up any pots easily.

Justin Young: There are just so many ways to beat him (laughing). In heads-up play, Eric does not have many leaks. I would try to take advantage of his perception of me being a creative bluffer. When I do make hands, I need to really concentrate on taking abstract lines to get maximum value. This will make him pay off with a lot of marginal hands in inflated pots.

Baldwin limps in from the button with the A♣ 4♣. Young checks his option from the big blind with the 10♥ 4♥.

CT: Eric, why limp in with a pretty strong hand in heads-up play?

EB: Over the course of a long heads-up battle, it’s important to add some deception to your preflop play. By just limping in with a relatively strong hand, I set up an opportunity to pick off bluffs with ace high, and also get value from weaker pairs when I hit an ace. I consider Justin to be a very aggressive player, and one who would raise almost all the time here with decent strength.

CT: Justin, could you have raised in this spot when Eric limped in from the button?

JY: When Eric limped in from the button, this is the kind of hand with which I’m happy to just see a flop. If I raise, he’s calling or reraising most of the time, and I don’t want to play a marginal hand out of position in an inflated pot.

Flop: Q♠ 7♠ 3♣ (pot: 11,000)

Young checks. Baldwin checks.

CT: Eric, why check? Justin’s most likely pretty weak.

EB: Because Justin loves to check-raise. This fact alone discourages me from betting with only ace high. Checking serves to get me one street closer to showdown with a hand that may very well be the best but can’t stand a check-raise. There are also a bunch of turn cards that vastly improve my hand on the turn. Obviously, an ace would be a great card, but any club, 2, 4, 5, or 6 gives me enough added strength with the ace high to call a bet on the turn, or bet if checked to.

CT: Justin, what do you make of Eric’s check on the flop in position?

JY: I’m pretty surprised. I would expect him to bet 95 percent of his possible hands. The only hands that I think he would check are those that missed that have showdown value. So, king high seems pretty likely.

Turn: 10♣ (pot: 11,000)

CT: Justin, you’ve hit. What now?

JY: The turn puts another flush draw on the board. I’m fairly certain that I have the best hand here, so I’m looking to bet twice and get at least one street of value from a king-high type of hand.

Young bets 6,500.

CT: Eric, when he leads into you here, what’s the optimal way to proceed?

EB: Well, the 10♣ is one of those turn cards that made me happy that I didn’t bet the flop and risk a check-raise. The combination of Justin’s aggression and me showing weakness by checking the flop makes me think he’s going to fire here. Since he doesn’t necessarily have to have a strong hand, I think this is a great spot for a semibluff-raise with the nut-flush draw. It will be tough for him to call without having at least a 10 or a big draw. If he calls, the river should be fairly easy to play well. If I river an ace or a club, I will value-bet. If I miss, I will check. If he had a draw, my ace high is likely to be the best at showdown. If he has a made hand on the river, like a pair of queens, I fully expect him to call as a bluff-catcher, making it pointless to bet.

Baldwin raises to 17,000.

CT: Justin, what hand do you put Eric on when he raises you?

JY: I think Eric could raise with a wide range here, including a club draw or some kind of straight draw, like K-J or K-9. He also would do it with K-10 and J-10 in order to get a read from me, and either check the river or go for thin value based on my reaction and the river card. I didn’t like reraising him because I felt like he could flat-call most of his range and then play against my marginal hand in position. I called, looking to check-call most rivers.

Young calls.

River: A♠ (pot: 45,000)

Young checks.

CT: Eric, is it time to put in a value-bet as planned when you hit your ace?

EB: Yes. I’m looking to get called by a bluff-catching pair of queens or tens. It’s certainly possible that Justin will check-raise, but not value-betting top pair here is too weak, as you need to squeeze out value where you can when playing heads up.

Baldwin bets 32,500.

CT: Justin, in your mind, could Eric have the flush here? If not, what’s he betting for value on the river?
JY: Based on my flop read, I did not think he could have a flush here, so my plan was to check-call any bet. Therefore, I checked, and he bet. I still liked my hand, but his bet size felt like his range could contain hands that were marginally better than mine.

CT: Can you take the pot away from Eric?

JY: Since flushes, K-J, and two-pair hands are in my range, I believed that he would have to fold any one-pair hand. So, I …

Young raises to 82,500.

CT: Justin, with that check-raise, it really looks like you’re representing a pretty good hand and are betting for value.

JY: This raise is supposed to look like it has super value, so that all thin value-bets and bluffs will have to fold. The only downside to this line is that I’m risking a lot of chips against a thinking player who might be able to figure out what the river raise is designed to do. The bet leaves him room to rebluff, and although he is capable of doing it, I doubted that he would, mainly because it’s too easy for me to show up with medium or small spades.

CT: Eric, can you possibly think about calling Justin’s raise?

EB: When he raises me, it certainly looks like I’m beat. I can’t see him check-raising for value with anything less than a flush, Broadway straight, or maybe a set. I expect him to raise all pocket pairs and K-J preflop, which leaves me to believe that he has a flush. If he has a pair of queens or tens, I would expect him to be more likely to bluff-catch than to turn it into a bluff.

CT: And if he’s bluffing?

EB: If he’s bluffing, I expect it to be with a missed draw, like J-9, 9-8, or clubs. However, if he has one of these hands, I think he’s more likely to lead out than go for a check-raise bluff. It’s tough to have the discipline to check when you really want to bluff, as there’s no guarantee that I’m going to bet. His bet-sizing even screamed that he wanted a call.

CT: Justin, what did you do while Eric was trying to figure things out in his head?

JY: I attempted to drop obvious weakness tells, in case he was close to a fold. This tactic may have been a mistake, but I felt that the longer he took, the more likely he was to call. After about five minutes, Eric made a good call.

Baldwin calls and wins the pot of 210,000.

EB: I made a crying call here based on the great pot odds and the knowledge that Justin is sick enough to make a play like this on a bluff. ♠