Final Table Takedown: Bryan Piccioli Ramps Up the Aggression and Applies Pressure at the Final Table

Bryan Piccioli is a 21-year-old poker pro from Buffalo, New York, currently residing in New York City. Specializing mainly in online multitable tournaments, he has recently begun expanding his horizons into the live-tournament arena. His biggest score came in February of this year when he chopped the Full Tilt Online Poker Series $2,100 two-day event for $282,245. He also has made some good runs in live $10,000 tournaments, including the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, EPT Monte Carlo, and WPT Foxwoods events. Piccioli has more than $3.7 million in online- and live-tournament career cashes.

Event Full Tilt Poker no-limit hold’em
Buy-in $150
Players in the Event 4,474
First Place $119,752
Finish Third

Hand No. 1

The villain raises to 68,000 from early position.

Craig Tapscott: What do you know about the villain at this point?

Bryan Piccioli: He’s definitely a competent player. I know that he has won a big online tournament in the past, so I know that he can handle the pressure of a big final table.

CT: You came to this final table as the chip leader. What’s the plan?

BP: When I have a big chip lead at the start of the final table, I want to apply a lot of pressure to the other stacks that are above average. I know that they can’t really put a lot of their stack at risk in marginal spots, because of the other short stacks.
Bryan Piccioli reraises to 156,565 with the 10 8 from the hijack position.

BP: These are the kinds of hands that I like to three-bet in this spot — suited connectors and hands that flop well when I’m in position. My three-bet size here is to a little less than five big blinds, which is somewhat small, in retrospect. But his open was just a min-raise, and I think it accomplishes the same thing as a bigger three-bet. With this sizing, an opponent is going to flat-call a lot, and you will have position and the initiative on the flop.

The villain calls.

Flop: 10 7 2 (pot: 379,130)

The villain checks.

BP: I now have top pair on quite a dry flop. Determining the bet-sizing on the flop is really important, in my opinion.

Piccioli bets 98,565.

CT: Why so small?

BP: You’re right, this is pretty small compared to what I would continuation-bet normally in a spot like this. I really don’t want to get check-raised here. Sometimes I even check these flops back.

CT: Really? Explain.

BP: Well, it might sound crazy to three-bet light with a hand like 10-8 suited after flopping top pair, which is pretty much the best-case scenario. The bad thing about checking back the flop here is that there are a lot of scare cards on the turn that hit my opponent’s range. I think by betting quite small here, about 25 percent of the pot, it gets my opponent to just check-call or check-fold the majority of his range. You shouldn’t be getting check-raised on flops like this too often.

The villain calls.

Turn: 8 (pot: 576,260)

The villain checks. Piccioli bets 265,265.

BP: I decide to put out a decent-sized bet this time, a bit less than half the pot. I know at this point that if he calls, the pot is at about 1.1 million on the river, and his stack would be around 875,000. This sets up a nice-size river jam, depending on what the river card is.

The villain calls.

CT: What hand range are you putting him on?

BP: His range here consists mainly of one-pair hands. It could be hands like 7-6 suited, 9-7 suited, 9-8 suited, 10-9, J-10, Q-10, K-10, A-10, and pocket pairs like 8-8, 9-9, and maybe even J-J. The turn also brings a second spade, so he could’ve picked up a flush draw with his suited-connector hands.

River: Q (pot: 1,106,790)

The villain checks.

CT: How do you feel about this river card?

BP: There are a lot worse rivers, but this river could be a potential scare card for him and we may not get paid off big now. If he’s check-calling the flop and the turn with a lot of one-pair hands, he’s not likely to call an all-in bet with almost 900,000 still in his stack on the river, mainly because if he folds, he’d still be in the top five in chips. When he’s check-calling with these one-pair hands, he’s hoping that a decent percentage of the time, I’m barreling with hands such as A-Q, K-Q, Q-J, and so on — and I would get there on the river with those hands.

CT: So, how can you squeeze value out of your hand at this point?

BP: I decided to go for a somewhat small value-bet instead of jamming.

Piccioli bets 345,685.

BP: This bet leaves him with about 530,000 if he calls and is wrong. At this point, he can still afford to try to make a hero-call on me and be in decent contention at the final table. I think that in these spots, it’s best to leave your opponent some chips behind, because he’s way more likely to pay off a value-bet really light than pay off an all-in bet.

The villain tanks and then calls, and reveals the 5 5. Piccioli wins the pot of 1,798,160.

Hand No. 2

CT: What are the final-table dynamics between you and the villain?

BP: The villain in this hand is very aggressive, and my image is also pretty crazy. This happens pretty frequently when you get two active players playing deep-stacked poker three-handed at the end of a tournament. In this scenario, fireworks are sure to be set off.

Bryan Piccioli raises to 230,230 from the small blind with the A 10.

BP: Usually, I’m not a very big fan of A-10, especially when it’s offsuit. But in a spot like this, I was very happy with the blind-versus-blind situation in a three-handed format with the dynamics that I had going with the villain. From the small blind, I usually raise about 2.3 to 2.5 times the big blind, but we are very deep. In these instances, I like making a little bit bigger raise to discourage him from resisting too much.

The villain reraises to 629,963 from the big blind.

BP: This is a pretty big three-bet, considering that he’s in position; it’s a reraise of almost triple my bet, which was pretty uncommon for him. I wasn’t sure if it meant strength or weakness. One thing I did know is that folding was out of the question. My A-10 offsuit is just too good a hand to consider folding to a single three-bet, given the dynamics at this point. The options here were: call, go all in, or four-bet to induce a bluff-shove.

CT: So, in this spot, folding is absolutely out of the question?

BP: Yes. I think flat-calling is, as well. As I explained earlier, A-10 is a hand that I hate playing when deep-stacked and out of position, especially in a three-bet pot when my opponent is the aggressor. So, I immediately ruled out folding and flat-calling as options. This left jam or four-bet to induce a shove.

CT: What’s the main factor that your decision comes down to?

BP: Pretty much what it came down to was how high a percentage of the time I thought this guy would five-bet all in as a bluff. After thinking back to the first hand of the final table, when he called a massive overbet-shove on an A-6-6-5-3 board containing three clubs with just 10-10, I knew that he wasn’t afraid to put his stack on the line in a marginal spot. He had three-bet me on more than one occasion, and vice versa. To me, everything led to the fact that inducing was the better option here. Yes, I know that A-10 offsuit is not the best hand to do this with, and probably is at the very bottom of my four-bet/calling range, but I think it was the better option, given our history.

Piccioli reraises to 1,234,567. The villain shoves all in.

BP: At this point, I’m not ecstatic about the whole thing. I would’ve been perfectly content with a fold, but I made this four-bet to try to induce him to bluff, so of course I snap-call.

Piccioli calls. The villain reveals the K K.

BP: Oops! Even in this instance, where he basically has the nuts, I still have almost 30 percent equity.

Flop: Q 8 5 (pot: 9,376,224)

Turn: J (pot: 9,376,224)

River: 8 (pot: 9,376,224)

The villain wins the pot of 9,376,224.

CT: Any regrets on how this hand played out after thinking it over again?

BP: Maybe just shove all in instead of trying to induce. With the other player sitting with less than 3 million in chips, the villain probably won’t five-bet all in light as often as I originally thought. ♠