Final Table Takedown: Brian Yoon Captures Second World Series of Poker Bracelet

Brian Yoon, 24, grew up in Torrance, CA. and currently lives in Los Angeles. He attended UCLA (2012, Economics). Yoon has played poker since high school, took it more seriously in college, and became a full-time professional right after graduation.

Yoon has numerous deep tournament finishes including a 58th-place finish in the 2011 WSOP main event, a first in the 2013 Little One for One Drop $1,111 WSOP event, and first in the 2014 $5,000 8-max WSOP event. He is an instructor at Run It Once (runitonce.com) and also offers private coaching. Yoon currently travels to play big live tournaments (WPTs, EPTs, etcetera) and also goes to Canada a few times a year to play online events. He has tournament cashes totaling more than $1,700,000.

Hand No. 1

Key Concepts: Bluff catching; Pot odds

Yoon raises to 80,000 from under the gun (UTG) holding A 4.

Craig Tapscott: Standard raise four-handed. Correct?

Brian Yoon: A very standard open. I have had the chiplead for the whole final table and have relentlessly been opening pots, so a suited ace is an amazing hand to see to open.
Arieh calls from the small blind (SB). Kurshumi calls from the big blind (BB).

Flop: 8 7 7 (pot: 260,000)

Arieh checks. Kurshumi checks.

BY: It is an OK flop for our hand but not amazing, especially against two opponents. So I decide to check back.

Yoon checks.

CT: Would a continuation bet (c-bet) have been appropriate here? Do you have any reads on either player’s hand at this point after they checked?

BY: Between the two of them combined, there are a lot of hands that won’t fold to a c-bet here. Any seven, any eight, hands like 10-9, J-10, J-9, heart combos, and even hands like K-Qx may not fold. Josh had also been playing a style where he does not want to get involved in big pots with me unless he has a big made hand. So I thought he could easily be flatting the SB with a hand like A-10, A-J, or A-Q and will not fold those to a flop bet. I do think c-betting here is an OK play, because we can protect our hand a bit when it is the best hand. But I decided to play it safer this time and move on to other hands, especially because they were letting me control the table quite a bit.

Turn: 4 (pot: 260,000)

CT: You got there.

BY: (laughs) Yes. A good turn card for us, mainly because it isn’t one of the plethora of bad cards (9, 10, J, a heart, etcetera). Pairing up is also nice because we now pull ahead of better ace-highs.

Arieh checks. Kurshumi bets 140,000.

CT: Easy call?

BY: This is a mandatory call for us here. There are a lot of draws he could be betting (hearts, diamonds, 10-9, J-10, J-9, etcetera) and he could also simply be stabbing here with almost anything after Josh shows a lot of weakness and I show weakness by checking back the flop.

Yoon calls.

River: K (pot: 540,000)

CT: Good card or bad card?

BY: Not the best river card for us. The backdoor-diamond flush draw gets there as well as a hand like K-x of hearts, or even any random K-x that was just stabbing turn.

Kurshumi bets 265,000.

CT: What hand could he be value betting with?

BY: I am not thrilled about the situation. It’s possible for him to be value betting any 7, any king, and a diamond flush. He could also value bet an 8 here, but I didn’t think he was the type of player to do that and would instead check. I can still beat all of his missed heart draws, 10-9, J-9, J-10, and other random hands he was just stabbing turn with.

CT: Can you call this? And what does your hand look like to Kurshumi?

BY: Well I only need to be correct with a call about 1 out of 4 times and I think I definitely will be. Ardit also knows that I am likely to be weakish here after I check flop and just call turn. It is quite unlikely I have a very strong hand and a hand like ace-high makes up a big portion of my range. So for him, it is easy to put pressure on my weak range and therefore this makes me want to call more.

CT: Did you pick up anything else from Kurshumi?

BY: He decided to stare me down on the river, something I had not seen him do yet to this point against me. Although my decision was based predominantly on what I have already stated, I also had a bit of a live-read on him (can’t reveal exactly what it was) that he was trying to intimidate me and that he probably preferred for me to fold.

Yoon calls. Kurshumi reveals 3 3. Yoon wins the pot of 1,070,000.

Hand No. 2

Key Concepts: Range strengths; Hand storytelling; Bluffing

Yoon raises from the small blind to 100,000 holding K J.

CT: So why a 2.5 times raise this time as compared to two times last hand?

BY: I decided to 2.5 times it instead of going for a min-raise because of my positional disadvantage against the big blind. If he decides to call my bet, I will be out of position the entire hand, which is not an ideal situation against another professional player. Josh has been playing very tight against me blind versus blind and also in general.

Bergman reraises to 205,000.

BY: This is the first time he has three-bet me and I am a bit worried about the strength of his range. However, it is possible he is now trying to make a stand so that I do not keep running him over anymore blind versus blind.

CT: Could you move in against his stack size?

BY: I considered moving all-in with such a strong hand blind versus blind, but I decided to just call instead. He has given me a good price to see a flop with a hand that flops well. In case he is bluffing with a weak hand, I can keep those weak hands in and possibly hit some flops where I am dominating him. I also did not want to move all-in preflop, because I felt I had control of the table and didn’t want to “gamble” on whether or not he was strong.

Yoon calls.

Flop: Q 9 2 (pot: 430,000)

Yoon checks. Bergman bets 125,000.

CT: That’s a pretty small bet into this pot?

BY: It is a small bet. But given he comes from an online tournament background (where smaller bet sizes are more prevalent) I don’t view it as too out of the ordinary. I considered check-raising here to put pressure on him and get him to fold hands like ace-high, but I think my hand is a little bit too strong to do so. I have a lot of decent turn cards (a king, a jack, a 10, a diamond) and he is giving me a really good price to see a turn card. So I…

Yoon calls.

Turn: 8 (pot: 680,000)

BY: The J-10 straight draw gets there as well as the flush draw. I now have a flush draw and do not mind seeing a river card.

Yoon checks. Bergman checks.

BY: He checks back rather quickly. He is now telling me that it’s very unlikely he has J-10 or a flush. It also becomes less likely he has a strong queen or something like pocket aces, hands that may bet the turn. It is possible he will check these back, but we can begin to slightly discount them from his range.

River: 9 (pot: 680,000)

BY: We brick and now have king-high. It is extremely unlikely we have the best hand here and I have to decide if I want to bluff. I believe this is a great spot to bluff.

CT: Breakdown your thinking as you review your options.

BY: Well, he has already shown us that he’s not likely to have a super-strong hand, because he checked back the turn. We could still have a flush in our range, as well as the J-10 straight. This river card is even better because we could also easily have a nine in our hand and we would have played the hand exactly like this. It is unlikely he has a nine, because there’s a decent chance he would check back the flop if he flopped middle pair there. So we have a ton of strong hands in our range still. Meanwhile, the strongest hand in his range is probably something like pocket aces or top pair here, and even then, those are only a small part of his range. What is more likely is a weaker hand like ace-high, king-high, or a mediocre pair like tens or eights. We can put significant pressure on these hands and make them fold.

Yoon bets 400,000.

CT: Why this sizing for the bluff?

BY: A bet that appears large, especially given his small flop c-bet size, is about 60 percent of the pot. It will be a scary bet for him to call here given how many strong hands I could have. If he calls and is wrong, he will also be the short stack at the table.

Bergman folds. Yoon wins the pot of 680,000.

CT: Brian, can you run down some basic checkpoints that go through your head when considering bluffing in this type of situation? What questions do you ask yourself?

BY: I consider the type of opponent I am up against. Weaker players will only think about what their exact hand is and I try to determine if I can make him fold whatever I think he has. Stronger opponents will be more concerned with what I have, not what they have, so I think more about what I am representing. I think about what hands are in my range and basically want to make sure that I can properly represent enough strong hands where my opponent will think to himself, “Oh he has so-and-so hand, I should just fold here. He has me beat.” Once I figure all of this out, I think about what bet sizing will accomplish the job. ♠