Final Table Takedown: Casey Jarzabek

Casey Jarzabek has cashed for nearly $6 million in online tournaments. He started playing online poker when he broke his foot in six places sliding into second base at a charity baseball game, confining him to bed. He made $40,000 during those first two weeks and quickly realized that he could potentially make a living at poker.

Jarzabek has final tabled a couple of WSOP Circuit events as well as taking second in a WPT preliminary event at Foxwoods. He has now won or chopped eight Sunday major poker tournaments. Jarzabek is the lead professional at tournamentpokeredge.com, and is also a LockPoker.com pro.

Hand No. 1

Key Concepts: Minimizing losses when you’ve been coolered; knowing your opponent.

Craig Tapscott: Can you share some of your thoughts on how to play as chipleader with 18 players remaining? What kinds of things are you looking to accomplish?

Casey “bigdogpkt5s” Jarzabek: Usually, with 18 players remaining, I like to dial up the aggression quite a bit. In these big field tournaments, a lot of players are new to making it this deep and the money is significant, so I try to exploit the edge I have on players that are playing too tight in order to make the next money jumps.
Villain raises to 120,000 from UTG+2.

CT: What’s your read on the villain?

CJ: He has the second biggest stack at my table. Already, just because of stack dynamics, this is the guy that I want to target because a lot of the other stacks are at that awkward stack stage with around 20 big blinds or less. Also, given the fact I have a premium starting hand, I want to try and polarize his range here a little. So I go ahead and three-bet.

Bigdogpkt5s raises to 245,555 from the big blind holding A Q. Villain calls.

Flop: 8 A 10 (pot: 575,110)

CJ: Given the fact that he just called preflop, I love the flop. I don’t have him on a hand like A-K or aces because I think he would have four-bet pre. I believe I’m good here, unless he has exactly eights, tens, A-10 or A-8. So I obviously go ahead and continuation bet.

Bigdogpkt5s bets 312,555. Villain calls.

Turn: 9 (pot: 1,200,220)

Bigdogpkt5s checks.

CT: What are you thinking when you check again?

CJ: The turn puts a few draws out there and I’m now kind of perplexed at what this guy could have. So I go ahead and check, planning on check-calling the turn. But he…

Villain checks.

River: 4 (pot: 1,200,220)

CJ: The river seems fairly harmless although there are three spades out there now.

CT: You can’t really put him on a flush?

CJ: No. I don’t feel like he has backdoor spades here. There is 1.2 million in the pot and I feel like this river has to be valued.

CT: What hands do you think he will he pay you off with?

CJ: He may pay me with hands like jacks, queens, or even A-J. I don’t have him on A-K because of the preflop action. But I’m really confused. So I decide on a value/blocker type bet, meaning I didn’t want to have to check-call a bigger bet then I wanted to value.

Bigdogpkt5s bets 476,555. The villain calls and reveals A K. The villain wins the pot of 2,153,330.

CJ: I am shocked when he rolls over the one hand I didn’t think he had — A-K.

CT: How do you think he played the hand? Did he get more out of you than he would have than if he had played it stronger on any street?

CJ: This is a classic example of him not knowing his opponent. With my aggression, if he would have raised on the flop or at some other point, I probably would have chosen to play for all my chips. So I definitely think he missed value. In fact, the way he played it gave off too many signals that he had some sort of hand.

Hand No. 2

Key Concepts: Blind vs. blind heads-up aggression; following through on your plan.

Villain raises to 580,000 from the button.

CJ: The villain went into heads-up play with a 2-1 chip lead and this is the hand that swung it to my favor and put me on the course to victory. He raised his button like he had done every single time.

Bigdogpkt5s reraises to 1,345,555 holding 4 5. Villain calls.

Flop: 3 8 7 (pot: 2,741,110)

CT: You have to continuation bet, correct?

CJ: Yes, given the preflop aggression I had shown.

Bigdogpkt5s bets 1,543,555. Villain calls.

CT: At this point can you pin down the hand range the villain is calling you with?

CJ: Heads up it’s a lot harder to nail down specific ranges because people play it so differently. They play a wider range of cards even to raises and three-bets. The flop is harder to pin down, but you can get more information by what people do on the turn.

Turn: 2 (pot: 5,828,220)

Bigdogpkt5s checks.

CT: What’s the plan?

CJ: Well the turn was real interesting for me, giving me an open-ender. There was 5.8 million in the pot and I had 10 million left in my stack. I figured an absurdly strong line here would show weakness, so I checked to him, hoping he would bet so I could shove.
Villain bets 3,600,000

CT: That’s a big bet. Do you think you have any fold equity to continue with your plan?

CJ: Well, his bet was a lot bigger then I wanted it to be, giving me way less fold equity then I thought I would have for this move. But I just knew that if he had a hand like K-Q or A-10, or anything like that, he just couldn’t call a shove even with the minimal fold equity [I had]. So, I followed through with my plan and shoved.
Bigdogpkt5s shoves all-in. Villain folds. Bigdogpkt5s wins the pot of 9,428,220.

CJ: He snap folded and I now had the chip lead and never looked back.

CT: That shove took a lot of heart. What made you so sure that you could play the hand on the turn this way and get the villain to fold?

CJ: Obviously I’m not 100 percent sure I can get away with this, but I made my line so strong that he has to have absolutely smashed the flop to call. As I said before, his range is so wide heads up that smashing it hard is only a small part of it. So I think it’s worth the gamble here. If I’m wrong, I ran into the wrong part of his range.

CT: When you see a play like this from an accomplished professional it begs the question — What other opportunities like this do you see inexperienced players missing out on?

CJ: That’s a great question. I did a hand history review on this win for tournamentpokeredge.com where I explained a lot of spots where my actions were dictated by experience. Basically, inexperienced players have trouble putting the money aside and making the best possible play. That’s one of the huge edges that I have, but it’s definitely a learnable trait if you put in the practice. ♠