The Hand that made me Chip Leader in the 2014 WSOP Main Event

Hand: 8 7
Stack: 66,000
Blinds: 150-300
Position: Button

I raise to 700, the small blind (SB), a tight passive guy with 40,000, and the big blind (BB), a splashy 50-year-old French guy with 75,000, both call.

From the button, I am more than happy to raise with an overly wide range, especially if the players in the blinds aren’t playing back at me too much.

6 5 4

My opponents check to me, I bet 1,300, the SB calls, the BB raises to 4,000, I reraise to 12,300, the SB folds, and the BB quickly calls.

This flop is nice! My continuation bet (c-bet) is completely normal, as I would tend to bet with most reasonable holdings on this board. There is no point at in all in slow playing because it is quite easy for one of my opponents to have a decently strong hand on this flop, given they did not reraise before the flop.

When the BB raises, I am thrilled as he probably has some sort of strong made hand or draw. While a reraise may chase him away, given he is a splashy French guy, I think he will stick with me. It is worth noting that earlier in the tournament, I played the nut flush draw in an overly aggressive manner and got lucky versus a made flush to double up. This could easily influence the BB into thinking I have a lot of draws in my range. When he calls my reraise to 12,300, I put him on a range of only two pair and better made hands, and good draws.

J

The BB checks, I bet 16,000, and he quickly calls.

The turn is equally beautiful as the flop. I make a bet for value, expecting him to continue with his entire flop range. It is important that you do not bet too large in this situation. The worst thing you can do is bet so large that your opponent hero folds various two pair hands or weak drawing hands.

3

BB leads 20,000, I move in for 17,000 more, he quickly calls, and I beat 7 6.

When he leads into me, I assume he must be bluffing because leading with anything else is almost certainly terrible. Given my only options are to move in or call, and I have the nuts, I move in. When he quickly called, I assumed he also had 8-7 but to my surprise, he had the second nuts.

If I found myself in my opponent’s shoes on the river, I would have check/called to induce bluffs from busted draws. As played, he forced me to play perfectly. If I had a seven, I would call and if I had a worse hand, I would fold. It is as simple as that. My opponent took the exact worst possible line on the river. That’s lucky for me! Never forget, you have to get lucky to win a tournament. This is a form of luck people often fail to consider.

Somehow, four hours into the event, this pot made me the chip leader. Unfortunately, I only ran hot enough to barely get in the money. At least I had the opportunity to make a deep run! ♠

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