Hand 2 Hand Combat: David Vamplew

David Vamplew has just over $1.8 million in lifetime winnings and currently tops the Scottish all-time money list. His most recent big scores include going deep in the 2011 World Series of Poker main event for $40,654, finishing fourth in a WSOP sixhanded event for $141,030, and a nice $201,855 payday for third place in the World Poker Tour Venice main event.

David Vamplew: My opponent is Kimmo Kurko, a Finnish EPT regular who has recently been moved to my direct left. He seems like a pretty good all-round tourney player so I am not very happy about this at all! We each have around 250-300,000 in chips to start the hand.

Preflop it is folded to me in the small blind with A 5 and I open to 11.5k. Kimmo calls.

Vamplew (small blind – sb) bets 11,500. Kurko (big blind – bb) calls.

DV: An ace in this situation, with only one opponent, is going to be the best hand a huge amount of the time and a raise will take the pot pretty often — a good outcome. In this situation I tend to open-raise a little smaller than most. I think this encourages calling over three-betting a little more — something I am happy about as I then get to play after the flop with the weaker hands I am opening which I would not continue with facing a three-bet. It also allows me to call and see a flop a little cheaper against a three-bet. A smaller open means a smaller three-bet; it gives me a cheaper price on stealing the blinds and antes and I think that steal is just as effective, as the vast majority of people change the range of hands they defend their blinds with very little or not at all when facing a 2.3- or 2.5-x bb raise.

Rebecca McAdam: Obviously position is very important here, and with the battle of the blinds, the ranges are usually wider — would you defend A-5 preflop to an open out of position?

DV: A-5 offsuit is not a hand that I would normally play from this position facing an open raise from one of the other players at the table. In fact, even as the button facing an open I would usually fold. The other player’s opening ranges are usually going to be way tighter than in a blind-versus-blind situation so my hand will often be dominated and I will have to continue in the hand without the initiative, a situation that it is going to be hard to show a profit from. A hand like A-5 suited is going to give you the opportunity to semi-bluff more, and also to make the nuts or a very strong hand more, so I would be way more inclined to continue were that my holding instead.

Flop: J 5 3. Pot: 27,000.

Vamplew bets 14,000. Kurko calls.

DV: In blind versus blind situations, people tend to call down or float significantly lighter than they otherwise might, especially regulars who are aware that both player’s hand ranges are at their widest in a situation such as this. For this reason, I think I can comfortably value bet middle pair, top kicker on this board. I choose not to bet very big. I want to keep my opponent’s calling range wide to get value from my hand; I want to be able to continuation bet this flop with a lot of hands that I raised preflop and missed the flop and give myself a good price on that continuation bet (c-bet); the flop is not very connected so it is not much of a concern that we give draws a reasonably good price with a small bet.

I expect my opponent to raise my c-bet on this board relatively infrequently, since I often have missed when I bet the flop and so it will generally be more profitable for them to slow play big hands and this means it will be hard for them to credibly represent a big hand by raising. However, I still expect their calling range to be pretty wide and for them to float a lot with most hands that have some sort of equity or can pick up good equity such as backdoor draws, gutshots, decent high cards.

RM: Does that mean then if an opponent raised the flop in this situation, you would think that he is bluffing or is perhaps inexperienced? If so, what would you do?

DV: If I were to get raised on the flop the hand becomes about the “levelling war” created by the fact that my opponent’s raise doesn’t really represent any hand very credibly and I have to decide which level they are thinking on. Are they trying to induce me to rebluff them on the flop? or call down lightly since it seems like they can’t have anything? or are they trying to bluff me here by making me think they must have a strong hand since a bluff would make so little sense?.

Turn: 6♣. Pot: 55,000.

Vamplew checks, Kurko checks.

RM: What are your thoughts behind slowing down on the turn?

DV: The first decision I have to make on this turn card is whether I can bet again for value. I think that although I still have the best hand here a lot, few of the hands that I beat are likely to call another bet at this point. In fact, I believe it is more likely that a bet will get bluff/semi-bluff raised by a draw that either called the flop or was picked up on the turn, a hand that floated the flop, or a weak pair that my opponent does not want to continue calling down with, than it is that my second barrel will get called by a worse pair or draw. For this reason, I think betting for protection against floats (overcards to my pair of fives that may hit on the river) or against draws has little merit as I will end up getting bluffed by the hands I am trying to protect against too often.

Betting with the intention of three-betting the turn all in against a raise is a somewhat reasonable option, however there are a few reasons that made me decide not to on this occasion. Stack sizes are a little awkward for this play — I would prefer to bet around 25k initially to better represent a weak value hand that cannot stand a raise and would then expect my opponent’s raise sizing to be to around 60-65k if they were to raise. With stacks around 200-250k going in to the turn in the hand, an all-in raise risks a lot of chips relative to what is out there, meaning it has to get a fold more often to be profitable than an all in for 160k would, for example.

I have a hand that, although it has some equity with a pair and an overcard, is for the most part going to be drawing to very few outs if my bluff is called, mostly being up against two pair, a set, or a straight in this situation. It is also possible that I might end up getting all in against a draw — most likely a flush draw, probably coupled with some sort of straight draw, but even in these cases they have a lot of chances to improve and win the pot. One possible draw that I am in the best shape against is an unpaired A X, however I have a blocker to this with the A in my hand, so it is impossible for my opponent to have it. I also cannot be certain that my opponent will raise/call the turn with any of these strong draws that might choose to take the aggressive option on the turn. I think at least a decent amount of the time, and possibly a very large percentage, they are likely to just call a turn bet with these hands so when I do get all in it could well end up being only against the strong value hands which can take this line and would have me in very bad shape. If I make some slightly incorrect assumptions about their range in this spot and bet all my chips on that basis, it could turn out to be very costly!

I also think that it is worth mentioning that even if I were to decide that a play such as this might win the most chips overall, a lower variance line could still be the best option, considering that there is not much need to get involved in a huge pot against probably the best of my opponents at my current table (the rest of the table in this hand was mostly recreational Italian players). Playing a smaller pot with a marginal hand here will guarantee that I am able to continue playing hands against the weaker players at the table which has the potential to be very profitable.

I decided to check the turn with the intent of calling a bet as I expect all flop floats and a lot of my opponent’s draws (especially weaker ones) to bet this turn when checked to. Check-raising is an option, but I think that I will get rebluffed pretty often by draws, especially since they will expect me to bet most strong hands again for value as opposed to check-raising. I intend to also check/call a decent amount of rivers, based on the specific river card (e.g. if it completes a lot of draws I will more likely check/fold) and my opponent’s bet sizing.

My opponent checks behind. Although they may choose to slowplay a strong hand such as top pair or better since they may think I am check/folding here relatively often, I expect them to bet strong hands most of the time for value and so as not to give a free card to any draws I may choose to check/raise the turn with. At this point I expect their range to mostly consist of mid-strength and weak one-pair hands such as 9-9 and worse, some ace-high hands, and some draws that they have chosen to take a free card with, either not wanting to be check-raised off their hand if they bet, or checking to either hit on the river and have a more disguised hand to value bet or value raise with, or to bluff some river by trying to represent a mid-strength, one-pair hand, value betting after being checked to twice.

River: Q. Pot: 55,000.

Vamplew checks, Kurko bets 32,000, Vamplew calls.

DV: On this river card I do not believe betting has much merit. I don’t think worse hands are likely to call a bet and getting better hands to fold is not really a concern since I have decent showdown value — I think I have the best hand here reasonably often. When I check I expect my opponent to bet this river card with all strong hands that they slow played on the turn. They can’t expect me to have better than a weak jack very often at all so all of these hands are a clear value bet. However, as I mentioned before I don’t think that they slow play the turn very often so, although still a small consideration, these hands are not included much in my thinking.

It is possible that they could also bet a hand such as 9-9 or 8-8 in this situation as I will have a better hand pretty infrequently after checking both turn and river, so they may choose to value bet these hands now on the river. However, in tournaments it is much rarer for people to both be capable of, and actually make a thin bet such as this (sometimes choosing the lower variance option of checking back and seeing a showdown, even if they feel it could be a profitable bet) than when playing against good cash game regulars. I also think that, if they were to bet one of these hands in this situation, their bet size would more likely be around 20-25k in order to try to get called a little more often. For these reasons I think it is fairly unlikely for them to have a hand worse than J-X.

I mostly have to be concerned that my opponent has hit a queen on the river with either a float that checked back on the turn (unlikely since I think any float that has Q-high or K-Q-high on the turn will almost certainly bet), A-Q (reasonable, except that I expect them to three-bet this hand preflop almost always), Q-3 or Q-5 (I expect them to fold even the suited versions of these hands preflop almost always and I feel if they do continue preflop they may be more likely to three-bet than to call) or Q X (the most likely option, however most Q X are fairly weak draws which I expect to bet the turn).

Since I decided it was pretty unlikely for them to have a value hand when they bet this river, I decided to call their bet, expecting them to show me some sort of draw that they took a free card on the turn with or an ace-high hand that they decided to turn into a bluff on this river often enough for my call to be profitable.

Kurko shows 8 7. Vamplew wins the hand with a pair of fives.

RM: Was Kurko’s bet at the end a way of trying to buy the pot? What would have been a better way to get you out of there?

DV: I don’t really disapprove of my opponent’s river bet, I am still going to have plenty of hands that I c-bet with and missed the board that I have now just given up with but that he still loses to with only 8-high so a bet will let him win the pot versus these hands and it is not unreasonable for him to think he can make me fold some weak one-pair/ace-high type hands with a small amount of showdown value as well.

I do think that his bet should be sized smaller though. A smaller bet would allow him to credibly represent more (thin) value hands and in this situation I believe a smaller bet would generally actually get a fold more often than a bigger one. ♠