When I Was A Donk: Andrew Frankenberger

In this new series, Card Player asks top pros to rewind back to their humble beginnings and provide insights regarding the mistakes, leaks, and deficiencies that they had to overcome in order to improve their games.

In just a year and a half on the tournament circuit, New York’s Andrew Frankenberger has taken the poker world by storm, winning a Venetian Deep Stack event and then taking down the WPT Legends of Poker main event. He then followed up those two wins by making the final table of both the Festa al Lago main event and the WSOP Circuit Northeast Regional Championship. This summer, Frankenberger also won his first career WSOP bracelet.

In total, the newcomer has picked up more than $1.2 million in earnings. Here, Frankenberger talks about one of his earliest mistakes, and how he learned from it to improve his game.

“There is one hand that comes to mind from the Legends of Poker main event in Los Angeles, an event that I eventually went on to win, thankfully. Early on day one, Charlie Hook took advantage of a really weak play that I made. After a heavy amount of betting and raising, Charlie and I were left heads up on a board that held a low five-card straight with no flush possibilities.

“I was out of position and made a serious mental mistake when I decided to check to him. In my mind, since it was so obvious from the way the betting went that we both held big cards, we’d most likely be chopping up the pot. Of course, Charlie went ahead and punished me for checking, putting in an overbet that I couldn’t call, even though I was fairly certain we were in a chop situation. I mucked half of the pot and he showed me ace high, stinging me a bit.

“What I should have done was put in a blocker-bet, something that looked like a value-bet and that he couldn’t raise as a bluff. Worst-case scenario, he’d call the bet and we’d chop it up. Best-case scenario, he’d convince himself that I had the higher straight and fold. Either way, I get at least half of the pot. By not taking the lead on that river, I really put myself in an awkward situation, and he pounced on it.

“Ever since then, I’ve learned my lesson and, more importantly, learned the value of blocker-bets and what they can add to your game. Blocker-bets are an absolutely essential part of any tournament player’s arsenal. A good player will use a blocker-bet the same way that he value bets the nuts in order to keep his opponents off balance. Sometimes, I’ll use the blocker-bet with a draw, in an effort to get a cheap or even free look at the next card. Of course, you can’t do this all of the time, because strong players will take advantage if they know what you are doing.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to have a lot of success early on in my career, but I’m not crazy enough to think that I’ve figured it all out already. I’m definitely learning as I go.”