Final Table Takedown: Carter Gill Makes Sharp Reads on Road to Main Event Title in Latin America

Carter Gill has made two World Series of Poker final tables. He has more than $4 million in combined live and online cashes. Gill has spent the last seven years traveling the world, and currently resides in Medellin, Colombia, after deciding that going out partying seven nights a week might not be the best long term plan. He is recently married and is looking forward to having his first child in September of this year.

Event: Latin Series of Poker Millions Main Event
Players: 1,290
Entry: $850
First Prize: $175,070
Finish: 1st

Hand No. 1

Players Remaining: Five players away from the money bubble.

Key Concepts: Realizing betting patterns; Adjusting play based on a tournament with a changing structure; Making higher thinking calls. 

Craig Tapscott: This tournament had a different kind of structure, correct?

Carter Gill: Yes. It was a turbo early and main event deep later on. The average stack quickly went from 15-to-120 big blinds (BBs) on Day 2. That clearly is to the advantage of a good player.

Villain raises to 15,000 from the small blind.

CG: The Villain raises for the third straight time when it’s folded to him. The game is so incredibly tight given the circumstances near the bubble.

Gill is in the big blind holding Q 10.

CT: Can you really call a four-times raise with Q-10 off in this spot?

CG: While calling with Q-10 isn’t something advisable, I thought this guy was a weak, albeit aggressive, middle-aged player. One thing I do substantially different than most players is I go out of my way to play hands in position versus bad players. This was not a spot that I was considering folding.

Gill calls.

Flop: J 10 4 (pot: 34,500)

Villain bets 30,000.

CG: Now I think I have two options, shove, or call. While folding is an option, I don’t generally flat 15 percent of my stack to flop second pair and give up. I personally believe the best option here is call.

CT: Raising is not an option?

CG: Well If I shove, he likely calls all the hands that beat me and folds all the hands that don’t, so I am essentially bluffing. Poker is a game of incomplete information, and personally I feel like part of my edge comes from getting as much information as possible. A shove here accomplishes none of that, because I am not given more information on the turn, and it would be a straight guessing game.

Gill calls.

Turn: 9 (pot: 94,500)

CG: While I pick up a straight draw, it also brings a flush, a straight and all the hands that already beat me still do. I’m studying him intensely and he is taking surprisingly long to act. I’m thinking in my head, “Please check and let me play the river guessing game with a full board out and a better price from the pot since there is no fear of another bet on another street.” But…

Villain moves all-in.

CG: Wow!

CT: This really seemed to surprise you.

CG: It did. To me this was odd. Why was he taking so long? And there is no way he makes this move with a made flush or even K-Q, since those hands would want more value than an all-in.

CT: So what hand range do you believe he is putting you on to make this move?

CG: It would seem to him unlikely that the turn helps me since there was no flop raise, and I didn’t shove preflop which likely takes K-Q, A-J type hands out of my range.

CT: Did you pick up anything else from him?

CG: He seemed remarkably calm. Personally, as one who employs the hero call as my default play, I have noticed some people who look calmer bluffing then when they have it. Every single poker player knows the feeling, trying to look relaxed in a big pot when the other guy is studying you thinking he somehow can pick up those ever elusive “tells.”

CT: If he had made more of a value bet would you have snap folded?

CG: Well if he had bet half my stack I might have folded, and while personally I love his line with a big hand, it seems highly unlikely an amateur is shoving that big on the turn with a non-bluff, semi-bluff, or scared hand.

CT: So what could he have?

CG: The hand that I kept thinking in my head was A 8×. That would make sense for him to have, along with other hands like K, straight draws, and the hands that beat me such as two pair, top-pair/gutter type hands. If I win, I would have more than 200 BBs to play against amateurs. So I opted to…

Gill calls. Villain turns over Q 7.

River: 9 (pot: 223,500)

Gill wins the pot of 223,500.

Hand No. 2

Key Concepts: Using blockers in no-limit hold’em; Finding big folds with the top of your range; Folding after making a value bet.

Villain raises to 60,000 from under-the-gun (UTG). Gill is on the button holding A 10.

CG: The Villain’s range here is very wide; I cannot within reason find a fold here on the button with such a strong hand that often has his range dominated.  He is a very good, albeit very aggressive player. Those things often go hand in hand, but not always.
Gill calls.

Flop: A 10 8 (pot: 193,000)

Villain bets 60,000.

CT: Do you see this as a standard continuation-bet (c-bet)?

CG: Yes. That is relatively standard for most tournament players, as a common line with a small c-bet with a smaller stack-to-pot-ratio. This can set up a bigger turn bet that they wouldn’t be able to do if they had bet larger on the flop. It is something I often employ, but often like to counter with a double float and turn raise.

Gill raises to 140,000.

CT: Kind of a small raise.

CG: Because I feel like a bet of this size looks bluffy, and he could often put in another raise as a bluff. While on occasion (say if I knew he had six-high) I would just call, this is not a spot where I like that line. 

Villain calls.

CT: What’s his hand range after that a call?

CG: He could often have diamonds, hands such as K-J with a backdoor flush draw, J-9, A-x. I feel he would just call hands like A-K, A-Q, and A-J here, as there is no reason for him to inflate the pot. And Q-J and other hands that do not beat an ace, various tens, and possibly hands such as K-K, Q-Q, and J-J, which are trying to get a cheap showdown if the board runs out scary for my hand. He could also have hands that are stronger than just a flush draw, such as K J, Q 9, Q J, and K Q type hands that he doesn’t want to massively inflate the pot size with since he has not seen me get caught bluff-raising flops once. He knows I am much more apt to float and try to take it away for cheaper, than to bluff raise a flop agaisnt a very sticky opponent. 

Turn: Q (pot 473,000)

Villain checks.

CT: Will this card slow down your aggression?

CG: It is a scare card, but not one that I am going to give up on, but rather slow down on. You can certainly bet this card, but bet/folding feels so gross, even though that is what you would have to do to a check-raise. I generally prefer the line of check back and try to get value on the river and pay off his hands that have you beat on a lot of rivers. I prefer pot control and going for a bigger value bet on the river and or raise his occasional river blocker bets. 

Gill checks.

River: 4 (pot: 473,000)

CT: Not much changes with this river.

CG: No. unless it gave him two pair with hands such as A-4, Q-4 that I think could very well be in his UTG opening range.

Villain checks.

CT: Time for a value bet?

CG: I certainly have to throw out a bet here, since there a lot of hands I will be getting value from.

Gill bets 300,000.

CT: Why so big?

CG: I bet big hoping he thinks I have a missed flush draw, even though I’d likely risk a lot less with a bluff here to win the same pot size. That is a big leak I find many good players have. They risk the same with bluffs as they do with value hands as not to be exploitable.

Villain raises to 1,000,000.

CT: Such a big raise.

CG: I know. I started to think about hand ranges for him on the flop. It’s quite possible he has a very strong hand. He’s thinking that after I checked back the turn, I am not paying off any river bet, so he would get more value by check-raising.

CT: What type of hand is he doing this with?

CG: Many hands that are in his flop calling range A-Q, J-9, K-J now have me beat. I think it is conceivable he check-raises A-Q on the river, since I checked back the turn. I would likely also have to weigh the chance that he has a blocker hand, (J-J comes to mind) as to have a nutted hand on the river.

CT: Could it be a bluff?

CG: I do not think he is bluffing here very often. He would have to give me credit for being able to lay down a hand such as A-10 in order to pull off something like this. And if he was bluffing thinking I had a missed flush draw, he would likely make the raise smaller. I am rarely bluffing with a hand that has showdown equity as I feel like range merging in a tournament field that I have a huge edge over is just lighting money on fire. If he had a hand such as Q-J or K-Q I believe he would just call the river.

Gill folds. Villain wins the pot of 773,000.

CT: Did you ever find out what he had?

CG: He later told me he had Q-J and decided to make a crazy river play knowing I did not have the nuts. Whether or not that is true remains to be seen, because we all know poker players never lie (laughs). But that is the nature of the beast, and I won the tournament. So I guess I got the last laugh.  ♠