Final Table Takedown -- Kyle Cartwright

Event: 2012 World Series of Poker Circuit Biloxi – Main Event

Kyle Cartwright started playing poker at the age of 15 with friends. When he turned 18, he deposited on Party Poker and got second in the first tournament he played in. In the spring of 2011, Cartwright entered five tournaments at the WSOP Circuit events in Tunica, MS and won two of them and cashed for 14th in one other. He then traveled to the St. Louis WSOP Circuit Event and won the main event there for $142,000. It’s no coincidence he has been traveling the circuit ever since. He has made the final table of one World Series of Poker $1,500 event, eventually taking eighth place for $64,000. Cartwright now is the proud owner of five WSOPC rings.

Players: 300 Entry: $1,675 First Prize: $107,992 Finish: 1st

Stacks: Kyle Cartwright – 2,400,000 Dennis Pasentine – 1,000,000 Jesus Cabrera – 400,000

Blinds: 8,000-16,000 Antes: 2,000 Players: 6 Players Remaining: 6

Key Concepts: Pot control.

Cartwright raises to 32,000 from the hijack position holding T 9. Pasentine calls from the button. Cabrera calls from the big blind.

FLOP: 3 10 9 (pot: 116,000)

Cabrera checks. Cartwright bets 32,000. Pasentine raises to 80,000.

CT: What’s your feeling about Pasentine’s raise?

KC: This player was capable of making a raise with some sort of huge draw like with K J or other similar hands. I decided to just call because I had such a massive chiplead and didn’t want to race for a 2,000,000 chip pot at 8,000-16,000 blinds.

Cabrera folds. Cartwright calls.

CT: Could he have a set? Most likely not nines or tens?

KC: There was also a chance that he flopped a set of threes; but he would have made the same raise on the flop with all the draws.

TURN: 3 (pot: 276,000)

KC: I thought this was a good card for me because it is now extremely difficult for Pasentine to have flopped a set with me holding top two pair and the three now pairing the board.

Cartwright checks. Pasentine checks.

RIVER: 5 (pot: 276,000)

KC: Every type of draw missed so…

Cartwright bets 84,000.

KC: As soon as I made this bet Pasentine gave off so many tells. He was shaking his head, moving around in his chair and all sorts of weird stuff I hadn’t seen from this player before. I knew he was going to eventually raise. Before he even put the raise in I knew that he had quad threes. He decided after tanking for a good 3-4 minutes to…

Pasentine raises to 284,000.

KC: As soon as he slid in the raise, I said, “I know you have quads.”

Cartwright folds. Pasentine wins the pot of 360,000.

KC: I folded after about 10 seconds and the table was saying “show it, show it.” He said this is going to be good for the game and I thought for sure when he said that that he had bluffed me. But he turned over pocket threes for quads. The reason I chose this hand is because I could have gotten in stacks in on this flop with such a huge hand as I had, instead lost only about 200,000.

CT: Can you give our readers a few keys to reading players and live tells?

KC: Well, without giving away some of my own live tells that I believe I have on players, I would just tell them to always pay attention to every detail, tedious or not, that your opponent does regardless if you are in the hand or not. I pick up lots of tells on players when I am not in the hand. I see a lot of amateur players get up from the table a lot, be on their phones, and etcetera, while not in the hand. I think this is a huge mistake because you are missing out on a lot of tells that your opponents are giving away.

Stacks: Kyle Cartwright – 2,200,000 Dennis Pasentine – 1,200,000 John Dolan – 900,000

Blinds: 10,000-20,000 Antes: 3,000 Players Remaining: 6

Key Concepts: Patience; Being able to fold big hands when you know you are beat.

Pasentine raises to 60,000 from the hijack position. Dolan calls from the button.

KC: I knew Dennis had to have a big hand for him to make a larger raise preflop. His normal open wasn’t usually this big. So I decided to three-bet to…

Cartwright raises to 143,000 from the big blind holding K K. Pasentine raises to 350,000. Dolan folds.

CT: What’s Pasentine’s read on your play so far at this final table?

KC: I had been pretty active, but there was zero chance that Dennis was making a move here.

CT: So what hand range are you placing him on?

KC: I knew he had one of the top four hands: A-A, Q-Q, A-K, or maybe even same hand.
Cartwright moves all-in. Pasentine calls.

KC: He literally said call before I could finish saying all-in. I 100 percent thought it was just a cooler spot and he had A-A versus my K-K. I turned over my hand first and he was shaking his head saying, “I can’t win”. I was in shock that he didn’t have A-A. He had J J. I was beside myself. He was second in chips and got in around 60 big blinds when there was a zero percent chance I was bluffing. The only hand he could have beat was A-K.

FLOP: A 4 5 (pot: 2,442,000)

TURN: 4 (pot: 2,442,000)

RIVER: 5 (pot: 2,442,000)

KC: The board ran out clean and I took a commanding chip lead. No player had even a million chips and I was sitting on close to 3,500,000.

CT: OK, Kyle. Give it up. What’s the secret? To what do you attribute your surge in big tournament scores?

KC: No secret. I just try not to panic when I become short stacked. I was under 10 big blinds at one point on day 2. I stayed patient and waited for good spots. Also, I have also almost completely thrown out of my game trying to make the high variance play. I believe I have an edge over most of my opponents and in a good structured tournament, it is just not necessary.

CT: Can you be more specific about the high variance plays you are referring to?

KC: For instance, I flop a pair and a flush draw agaisnt my opponent in the first few levels of a deep-stacked, good structured tournament. I know my opponent is not going to fold his top pair or overpair. I see many amateur players getting their 10-15,000 stacks in with blinds 25-50 or 50-100 because they have such a huge draw. Sure you are a small favorite on the flop with 15 outs twice, but when you have an edge over your opponent it doesn’t make sense to basically flip for your tournament life so early. Also, I try not to make the “hero” call on the river with hands like an ace-high or bottom pair unless I am very confident I am correct. It is just too high variance against amateur players that will hardly ever bluff a large portion or their stack or even go all-in on the river.

CT: Since you are obviously very confident in your short-stacked game, can you share a few things you’ve done to improve that part of your game?

KC: The most important thing about being short stack is not to panic. Say you lose a big pot and in the very next few hands you go all-in with a short stack of 10-12 big blinds. The other players will think you are on tilt and push with a wide range out of frustration. They would, and more than likely should, call you lighter than they normal. And 10-12 BBs is still plenty of fold equity in an unopened pot. Most short stacks do not want a call and just want to pick up the blinds and antes in order to chip up. Obviously there is small chance that you picked up a hand, but patience is key in tournament poker. I have learned this the hard way. Also pay careful attention to your opponents and adjust accordingly. This goes back into paying attention to players even when you’re not in the hand. If you notice that a player never calls out of the blinds, this would be the time to try and steal the blinds and antes. Just remember to never give up in tournament poker, short stack or not.

CT: So what’s the biggest adjustment you’ve made to your game in the past two years or so?

KC: The biggest improvement I have made in my game is in knowing my image. Now that I am a circuit regular and have had some success, players now gun for me. I have to pick and choose my spots when to bluff because my opponents want to call me down with ace-high or bottom pair. I have had to adjust my game a lot the past year against these types of players. ♠